Registered Rep.: Strangest request you ever received from a client? Helene Robertson: In 1982, a retired schoolteacher asked me to find a mutual fund that had no weapons manufacturers in it. We went through every individual stock in every fund we...
The last week or two has been a tough market. And even though I remain positive, here’s a screen that doesn’t need a bull market to succeed. I’m going to go over a relative price strength screen that’s been beating the...
Creating lists such as this can be a notoriously capricious business. For starters, why only 10 people? Good question. But it forces a silly answer: The number 10 is a good number simple as that. Yes, it's somewhat arbitrary, but the object is to...
After some minor bumps along the way, the NASD and NYSE merger is official. The regulators’ consolidation, which was announced on November 28 and approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 26, became effective today.
So maybe his reputation wasn’t so damaged after all—or maybe it’s just made a comeback. The former Merrill Lynch sales manager who sued Hydie Sumner and her lawyer Linda Friedman in September of 2006 on grounds that the women...
How often do you call your clients? If they’re affluent, it might not be often enough. According to a J.D. Power and Associates 2007 “Full Service Investor Satisfaction Study,” released on July 24, there is a substantial group of...
So you thought the market timing scandal was over. Think again. While nearly all the mutual fund shops nabbed in the Eliot Spitzer-led trading investigation have settled with regulators, brokerage firms are still being put through the wringer for...
In keeping with regulators trying to be more proactive and less reactive, the SEC is cozying up to newly registered investment advisers. Have you received a “welcome letter?”
An NASD arbitration panel awarded a former Merrill Lynch broker $1.6 million for wrongful termination and defamation, claims he had filed against his former employer. The award included compensatory damages of $400,000 plus interest and punitive...