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SEC Votes to Seek Public Comment on U.S. Proxy System
July 14, 2010--The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted unanimously to issue a concept release seeking public comment on the U.S. proxy system and asking whether rule revisions should be considered to promote greater efficiency and transparency.
The U.S. proxy system governs the way in which investors vote their shares in a public company regardless of whether they attend shareholder meetings.
“The proxy is often the principal means for shareholders and public companies to communicate with one another, and for shareholders to weigh in on issues of importance to the corporation,” said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro. “To result in effective governance, the transmission of this communication between investors and public companies must be timely, accurate, unbiased, and fair.”
It has been nearly 30 years since the Commission last conducted a comprehensive review of the proxy voting infrastructure. With significant changes since then in shareholder demographics, technology, and other areas, the Commission’s review of the U.S. proxy system will examine emerging issues that either did not exist or were not considered significant three decades ago.
The SEC’s concept release focuses on the accuracy and transparency of the voting process, the manner in which shareholders and corporations communicate, and the relationship between voting power and economic interest.
view concept release
Source: SEC.gov
Pimco makes U-turn on UK bonds
July 14, 2010--Pimco, the world’s second-biggest bond fund manager, has reversed its decision to cut exposure to the UK bond markets after this year’s impressive performance of gilts.
Pimco, which took a negative view on the UK last year because of the widening budget deficit and poor public finances, has switched its stance from underweight to neutral on gilts, according to people familiar with the situation.
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Source: FT.com
New! Weeklys on DJX starting Thursday
July 14, 2010--Beginning Thursday, July 15, CBOE will add Weeklys options on The Dow Jones Industrial AverageSM (option ticker symbol: DJX). New DJX Weeklys series generally will be listed on Thursday mornings and the last trading day will be the following Thursday; they are “Friday a.m.” settled and expire on Fridays.
Weeklys are options that have a life of just one week. Typically new series are listed on Thursdays and expire on Friday the following week. However, new Weeklys series are not listed that would expire during the expiration week for standard options (the third Friday of the month). Except for the time to expiration, Weeklys have the same contract specifications as standard options.
CBOE now offers Weeklys options on*:
Indexes: SPX, DJX, OEX and XEO. (Note that new XSP Weeklys series will not be listed)
ETFs: SPY, QQQQ, IWM, GLD, GDZ, XLF, EEM.
Equities: Citigroup, Inc. (C), Bank of America Corporation (BAC), Apple Inc. (AAPL), British Petroleum (BP) Ford Motor Company (F) and Google Inc. (GOOG).
*Weeklys classes can change week to week
Source: CBOE
Direxion Shares Launches Four New Leveraged ETFs
New Funds Offer Long and Short Exposure to the Retail and Natural Gas Related Sectors
July 14, 2010---- Direxion, a pioneer in providing alternative investment strategies to sophisticated investors, is pleased to announce the launch of four new Direxion Shares Daily 2x ETFs to its existing lineup of multi-directional, leveraged funds. This brings the total number of leveraged ETFs offered by Direxion to thirty-eight.
The new ETFs are leveraged Bull and Bear funds that seek 200% of the daily performance, or 200% of the inverse of the daily performance (before fees and expenses), of the ISE-REVERE Natural Gas Index and the Russell 1000 RGS Retail Index.
These new funds, and all Direxion Shares ETFs, are intended for use only by sophisticated investors who understand the risks associated with seeking daily leveraged investment results and plan to actively monitor and manage their positions in the funds. There is no guarantee that the funds will achieve their objective.
"Direxion works to continuously deliver innovative tactical investment solutions that help sophisticated investors take advantage of market opportunities regardless of conditions," stated Dan O'Neill, Direxion Shares' President.
Many sophisticated advisors and institutional investors are using Direxion 2x and 3x ETFs to hedge positions in their current portfolios, while others are using the Funds to seek to take advantage of short-term trading opportunities available in today's markets.
The ISE-REVERE Natural Gas Index tracks companies that derive a substantial portion of their revenues from the exploration and production of natural gas. The Russell 1000 RGS Retail Index includes constituents of the Russell 1000 Index that are classified within the Retail subsector of the Russell Global Sector Scheme.
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Source: Direxion
NYSE Arca to Introduce New Collar to Safeguard Market Orders
July 14, 2010-- NYSE Arca, a unit of NYSE Euronext (NYX), has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to introduce a new price collar designed to safeguard the execution of market orders. The new price collar will be introduced on July 15, 2010 and is the latest in a series of steps implemented to improve market practices and structure since the "flash crash" of May 6, 2010.
"The market-order collar is an additional protection that complements those already in place and addresses a specific issue highlighted by the flash crash -- market orders that were executed at anomalous prices in electronic markets. The new collar is designed to help limit potential harm from extreme market volatility by preventing trades from occurring a specified percentage away from the last trade price," said Joseph Mecane, Executive Vice President and Co-Head of U.S. Listings and Cash Execution. "We will continue working closely with the SEC, other markets and market participants toward the goals of further strengthening the markets' safety net and rebuilding investor confidence in our national market system."
The new collar will prevent market orders to buy stock from executing or routing to another trading venue at a price above the collar. Conversely, market orders to sell will not execute or route at a price below the trading collar. The collar for issues priced $25 or less will be 10 percent above or below the last trade price; for issues priced above $25 up to and including $50, the collar will be 5 percent; and for issues above $50, the collar will be 3 percent. These limits also will help prevent erroneous trades from inadvertently triggering the individual-stock circuit breakers introduced last month, and are consistent with those in the newly implemented rules concerning the cancellation of erroneous trades.
Additional details of the new measure, including trading examples, are in the NYSE Arca rule filed with the SEC, linked here: http://apps.nyse.com/commdata/pub19b4.nsf/docs/F9706A0475E6BEAF85257760005AC153/$FILE/NYSEArca-2010-67.pdf
In just over two months since May 6, the following corrective measures have been implemented by the markets in concert with the SEC:
A pilot program of circuit breakers for individual issues was first rolled out on June 11 for stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500.
An expansion of the above pilot program to cover 344 exchange traded products plus all stocks in the Russell 1000 index is planned for later this month, pending SEC approval.
All markets have proposed amendments to existing rules concerning clearly erroneous trades, to make the cancellation of such trades -- when they occur in connection with an individual stock circuit breaker -- transparent and predictable for market participants.
NYSE Arca has revised its market order routing to further enhance its interaction with the New York Stock Exchange when a Liquidity Replenishment Point has been reached and other individual-stock safeguards imposed by primary markets.
Source: NYSE Euronext
Opening Statement Before the Technology Advisory Committee-Chairman Gary Gensler
July 14, 2010--Good afternoon. Thank you Commissioner O’Malia for chairing today’s meeting of the Technology Advisory Committee. This is the Technology Advisory Committee’s first meeting since its charter was renewed this year. The futures marketplace has evolved substantially over the course of the last decade. We’ve gone from open outcry trading to predominantly electronic trading platforms. In fact, in today’s futures marketplace, roughly 90 percent of the market is traded electronically.
Though we are fortunate to receive daily trade data and position data electronically, there is much we can learn and great deal more we can do regarding technology. For instance, while in some cases we still receive paper forms from market participants, we are considering putting out rules to automate our Form 40 and Form 102. This will allow us to automate the receipt of important information from the marketplace.
Internally, we are moving toward automation of our surveillance. While market participants have the technology to automate their trading, we must improve our ability to employ modern technology to automate our surveillance.
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Source: CFTCF.gov
FINRA to Make Additional Information About Brokers, Former Brokers Publicly Available Through BrokerCheck
Full Records of Brokers Leaving Industry to Remain Available for 10 Years; Criminal Convictions, Civil Injunctions, More to Remain Available Permanently
July 13, 2010--The amount of information available to the public about current and former securities brokers will expand significantly in coming months, as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) implements changes to its free, online BrokerCheck service recently approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The changes will increase the number of customer complaints reported publicly; extend the public disclosure period for the full record of a broker who leaves the industry from two years to 10 years; and, make certain information about former brokers available permanently, such as criminal convictions and certain civil injunctive actions and arbitration awards against the broker.
The changes will also formalize a dispute process for current or former brokers to dispute the accuracy of, or update, factual information disclosed through BrokerCheck.
"This additional information will benefit investors who are considering whether to conduct, or continue to conduct, business with a particular securities firm or broker," said FINRA Chairman and CEO Rick Ketchum. "Just as important, it will provide valuable information about persons who have left the securities industry, often not of their own accord, who have established themselves in other segments of the financial services industry and can still cause great harm to the investing public."
When the expansion is implemented, BrokerCheck will:
* Disclose all "historic" complaints against a broker dating back to 1999, when electronic filing of broker information began. Generally, historic complaints are customer complaints, arbitrations or litigations more than two years old that have not been adjudicated or have been settled for an amount less than the reporting requirement (currently $15,000). They are currently reported on BrokerCheck when the broker has three or more currently disclosable regulatory actions, customer complaints, arbitrations, litigations or historic complaints. The expanded BrokerCheck will disclose all historic complaints dating back to 1999 for individual brokers who are currently registered or whose registrations were terminated within the preceding 10 years.
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Source: FINRA
Commentary: Pessimism is the new black - the latest fashion
July 13, 2010--It is hard to recall a time when investor pessimism has been more in vogue than it is today. Yes, there is plenty of bad news to go around - imploding European economies, slipping US job growth, record deficits, and fears of a dreaded double dip.
What's worse, even good news is being interpreted as bad. Record corporate cash of $10 trillion is seen as corporate timidity, rather than prudent deleveraging. Many efforts to sustain economic expansion are seen as too late, too slow, too tepid, too fleeting. You'd think it was 1937 again. Is all this gloom really justified, and what's it mean for investors?
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Source: Osbon Capital
Direxion files with the SEC
July 13, 2010--Direxion has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for
Direxion Airline Shares, Direxion Auto Shares, Direxion Daily Canada Bull 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Canada Bear 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Russia Bull 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Russia Bear 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Agribusiness Bull 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Agribusiness Bear 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Home Construction Bull 2X Shares,
Direxion Daily Home Construction Bear 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Natural Gas Related Bull 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Natural Gas Related Bear 2X Shares, Direxion Daily Brazil Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Brazil Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Indonesia Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Indonesia Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Malaysia Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Malaysia Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily South Korea Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily South Korea Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Taiwan Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Taiwan Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Thailand Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Thailand Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Commodity Related Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Commodity Related Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Global Infrastructure Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Global Infrastructure Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Regional Banks Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Regional Banks Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Water Bull 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Water Bear 3X Shares, Direxion Daily Wind Energy Bull 3X Shares and Direxion Daily Wind Energy Bear 3X Shares
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
July 13, 2010-Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of trading on Tuesday, July 13, 2010:
Verena Minerals Corp. (TSXVN:VML) will change its name to Belo Sun Mining Corp.
The new ticker symbol will be "BSX" and the new CUSIP number will be 080588 10 9. There is no consolidation of capital.
Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Source: Standard & Poors