SEC posts
FeedPosted Mar 1st 2011 5:30PM by Paul Foster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Procter and Gamble (PG), Staples Inc (SPLS), Options, PG and E Corporation (PCG)
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) is recently down 1% due to Rajat Gupta (who served on the boards of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble (PG) both), having been charged by the SEC in an insider trading scheme.
GS March 155 and 160 puts were active. March and July put option implied volatility of 27 is near its 26-week average of 29 according to Track Data. Large put volume suggests traders hedging for downside price movement.
Staples, Inc. (SPLS) March call option implied volatility is at 37, June is at 29 according to Track Data, compared to its 26-week average of 28, suggesting larger near-term movement into Q4 results on March 2.
Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.
Posted Oct 2nd 2010 9:40AM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Indices, Market Matters, S and P 500
After nearly five months, federal regulators have been able to dissect the events of May 6, the day when the Dow plunged almost 1,000 points.
A joint report issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pieced together that day's events and came up with this finding, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. A computerized trading program run by a Waddell & Reed trader automatically sold 35,000 e-mini S&P contracts. These contracts mirror the larger S&P contracts. The trader's program was triggered at 9% of the trade volume.
Continue reading Flash Crash Report: What Really Happened?
Posted Sep 29th 2010 2:30PM by Elizabeth Harrow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major Movement, Bad News, Options

Option volume has skyrocketed on Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (
GMCR) today, after the Vermont-based coffee company announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has
taken an interest in GMCR's revenue recognition practices.
GMCR plunged right out of the gate as traders reacted to the news, with the shares shedding roughly 17% to test round-number support at $30. Option players definitely took notice; within the first two hours of the session, roughly 42,000 calls and 34,000 puts had changed hands on the stock -- outpacing GMCR's predicted daily volume by a massive margin.
Continue reading Green Mountain Coffee's SEC Woes Inspire a Bearish Strangle
Posted Sep 14th 2010 11:30AM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Market Matters

According to a new poll conducted by
CNBC/Associated Press, 86% of the 1035 respondents view the market as unfair to small investors following the May 6 Flash Crash, CNBC reported.
On May 6, the market crashed almost 1000 points in a matter of minutes. Some stocks traded near zero. The cause has yet to be determined. This event took investors by surprise and regulators were blindsided.
With regulators unsure of the cause of the crash and ways to prevent another one, investors have lost faith in regulators' ability to fix the market.
Continue reading Can Regulators Fix the Market?
Posted Sep 7th 2010 4:00PM by Tom Taulli (RSS feed)
Filed under: Politics
With sophisticated high-frequency trading and quant funds, it seems that the proverbial Hal 9000 has taken over Wall Street. Of course, a stark example of this was in May 6, in which the market inexplicably lost $862 billion in market value within 20 minutes. It was the "Flash Crash."
Since then, the SEC and other government regulators have been investigating the matter. Already, there are some changes that have been put in place, such as circuit breakers. And yes, these have been triggered in some cases already.
Continue reading SEC's Schapiro Hints at 'Flash Crash' Reforms
Posted Aug 27th 2010 11:00AM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Insiders, Law, Employees
The Securities and Exchange Commission pretty much fell asleep for the past two years. Now, there's talk that the agency plans to get tough on violators whose greed and recklessness took this country to its knees. The Federal Reserve had to pledge or spend $12.8 trillion to bail them out.
The $12.8 trillion is gone and we have a country with 17 million unemployed and underemployed. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke could have done much better just taking that $12.8 trillion and help those in need. All he had to do was use one good bank for Americans to switch their money into, and let the greedy ones take a hit. With $12.8 trillion Bernanke could have put this country back on its feet again.
Continue reading SEC, Asleep During the Financial Meltdown, Vows to Get Tough
Posted Aug 9th 2010 9:30AM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Employees, Scandals

Are you a whistleblower? If so, you could receive
big payouts from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The new financial reform act has a provision that rewards whistleblowers, senior employees and third-party informants who provide the SEC with information that results in prosecution. The payouts could be huge. People who provide the SEC with information that leads to a successful enforcement are entitled to receive 10% to 30% of any sanction over $1 million -- including a share of the proceeds from any related regulatory action or shareholders' lawsuit.
Continue reading Whistleblowing Provision in Financial Reform Act Could Mean Big Payouts
Posted Jul 22nd 2010 4:00PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Dell (DELL), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC)

A rise in jobless claims was trumped by a housing number that was not so bad. There was also a rise in oil prices after NOAA released the path of
Tropical Depression Three, revealing that it could be a threat to the Gulf of Mexico oil infrastructure. Regardless of the market move, this was another light-volume trading day. Ben Bernanke's testimony acted as a wash between yesterday and today because his lack of growth stance yesterday was negated today with more certain comments about new tools for the FOMC to use to counter a slowdown.
Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 10,345.76 +225.23 (2.23%)
S&P 500 1,093.66 +24.07 (2.25%)
Nasdaq 2,245.89 +58.56 (2.68%)
Top Analyst CallsContinue reading Closing Bell: Taking Back the Bernanke Loss from Yesterday (WFC, GDOT, USO, GS, ACF, DELL)
Posted Jun 11th 2010 12:30PM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Rumors, NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), Under Armour'A' (UA), Business of Sports
The exodus is set to begin. Rumors have pegged today as the day that Colorado is going to leave the Big 12 athletic conference for the "greener pastures" of the PAC-10.
This move will be the first in what will become the end of one of NCAA Football's most storied and most profitable athletic conferences. The Big 12 was one of the leaders of the NCAA Football world, but it is set to become nothing more than a carcass, left to be picked over by the major predators of the football world (most notably the PAC-10, SEC, and the Big Ten).
Continue reading JockStocks: RIP Big 12
Posted Jun 3rd 2010 2:40PM by Gary Sattler (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad News, Press Releases, Scandals, Headline News

Yesterday, SEC officials charged a Miami man for his operation of a $40 million Ponzi scheme. It is alleged that Luis Felipe Perez had fraudulently convinced investors to invest with him to fund his jewelry business and to finance pawn shops in New York. The jewelry businesses of the accused, Lucky Star Diamonds Inc. and Luis Felipe Jewelry Design Corp., have turned out to be no more than sham facades, and both companies were completely void of employees. Both companies have subsequently ceased their -paper only- operations. Likewise, Mr. Perez's pawn shop connections have turned out to be non-existent.
Continue reading SEC Levels Charges in $40 Million Ponzi Scheme
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