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Are small, Mom & Pop traders who trust their hard earned dollars to Wall Street being abused? Does a bear wee wee in the woods? A very important trial just started in Chicago that will pull back the curtain on the hidden, high finance trading practice known as spoofing. What is spoofing? Well, the technique combines ultra-fast buys by brilliant computer geeks and smart money guys who make a ton of dough in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. One definition of spoofing says it’s “a fraudulent trading practice that occurs when a trader who owns...

China is asking for stock trading records from Chinese and foreign brokerages to find investors who are shorting stocks Michelle Price, Pete Sweeney Today at 6:06 PM HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China is asking foreign and Chinese-owned brokerages in Hong Kong and Singapore to hand over stock trading records, sources with direct knowledge of the requests told Reuters, extending its pursuit of investors shorting Chinese stocks to overseas jurisdictions. Three sources at Chinese brokerages and two at foreign financial institutions said the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) had sought to identify traders and investors who had taken net short positions,...

The SEC still hasn’t stopped manipulative high speed traders from ripping off investors, even though the abuses have been self-evident for years to anyone paying attention. A series of events have brought the subject of high frequency trading abuses once again to the forefront of the financial news reportage. These events include: The recent arrest of Navinder Sarao, a British trader, who has been accused of being complicit in the infamous “flash crash” that occurred five years ago. Within minutes, the May 10, 2010 incident sent the Dow tumbling almost 1000 points before it recovered, sending shockwaves throughout our financial...

Tyler Durden 09/03/2014 "The stock market is at an all-time, but economic activity is not at an all-time," explains billionaire investor Sam Zell to CNBC this morning, adding that, "every company that's missed has missed on the revenue side, which is a reflection that there's a demand issue; and when you got a demand issue it's hard to imagine the stock market at an all-time high." Zell said he is being very cautious adding to stocks and cutting some positions because "I don't remember any time in my career where there have been as many wildcards floating out there that...

Ahead of the Tape Smith & Wesson Can Still Defy the Odds By Spencer Jakab Updated Dec. 10, 2013 12:17 a.m. ET America's largest gun maker will get some extra attention this week. Four days after it unveils fiscal second-quarter results on Tuesday, the nation will mark the anniversary of last December's school massacre in Newtown, Conn. The shooting's effect on Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.'s SWHC -0.08% financial fortunes shows how wrong the market's initial reaction was. The stock fell sharply as the grisly details of the rampage emerged, but it has bounced back by 58% since its trough...

To Conservatives, today is Enterprise Day when the job creators -- the risk takers and investors -- put it all on the line for the uniquely American way of free enterprise and letting the marketplace rule. Through hard work, intelligence and innovation, the makers are those to be honored today.Instead a DemonRAT president, Grover Cleveland, chose to set aside a day to pay tribute to the socialist union goons of the labor movement. Along with its evil twin, the minimum wage, union thugs have deliberately put brakes on the American economic engine.

Obama left his lush golf get-aways and NAACP basketball sprees to depart for a Brazilian vacation. ... Obama abandoned the victims of genocide in Libya to help America's oil opposition. Why? Out with Western oil, in with Russian and Brazilian oil. Is it just coincidence that George Soros sold his Western oil stock and bought stock in Russia and Brazilian oil companies, about three months ago ? ... Last March, Soros invested in airport screeners. How did he know to do that? Insider info!

Remember the difference between static and dynamic tax analysis? The former posits that tax changes produces no change in market behavior, so that hiking taxes by 10% gets you 10% more in revenue. The latter assumes that changes in tax codes forces markets to adapt, so that rate hikes risk lowering revenues, and lowering rates in certain ways can produce a better revenue stream, especially over the long run. Republicans favor the latter analytical method, while Democrats insist that tax cuts “cost” revenue opportunities and cause deficits.Which is correct? Well, the Washington Post reports on a lot of dynamic activity...

Most conservatives believe that the re-election of President Barack Obama is going to bring dire economic circumstances over the next four years, which could possibly drive the Nation into total collapse.The belief is likely not far-fetched considering the current state of affairs in American economics as the United States hurls toward a “fiscal cliff” which will combine rising tax rates and government shutdowns, the government prepares to raise its debt limit again to the tune of $2.4 trillion and the number of Americans out of work continues to trend at dismal levels.All of the ominous headlines about the shape of...

Risk perception isn’t what it used to be. Ask the swelling ranks of Canadian junior oil and gas companies braving high-risk venues like Sudan, Iraq and even Yemen. Technological advances and the shale revolution are making risk easier to digest. And political risk is no longer limited to developing countries. Plus, risk is increasingly relative: Ask anyone who’s been caught up in the politics of the Keystone pipeline. Sudan is a case in point. While instability and a very fragile peace with South Sudan remains a threat, there is also growing optimism. The philosophy is this: Sudan and South Sudan...

Regardless of who the President is after this close election, the equity markets and the U.S. economy are in trouble. Debt has spread throughout the Western world. The fallout is political dissonance, growing economic hardship and, in some places, mob violence.Ground zero for the spreading fear and panic is Greece, which was once the worldÂ’s greatest civilization and the birthplace of democracy, poetry and philosophy.There is violent evidence of the contradiction from what the ancients taught and what is unraveling in Greece. It would all just be another boring story at the end of the news day, except there is...

France is sliding into a grave economic crisis and risks a full-blown “hurricane” as investors flee rocketing tax rates, the country’s business federation has warned. Francois Hollande is tightening fiscal policy by 2pc of GDP next year to meet EU deficit targets “The situation is very serious. Some business leaders are in a state of quasi-panic,” said Laurence Parisot, head of employers’ group MEDEF. “The pace of bankruptcies has accelerated over the summer. We are seeing a general loss of confidence by investors. Large foreign investors are shunning France altogether. It’s becoming really dramatic.” MEDEF, France’s equivalent of the CBI,...

France is sliding into a grave economic crisis and risks a full-blown “hurricane” as investors flee rocketing tax rates, the country’s business federation has warned. “The situation is very serious. Some business leaders are in a state of quasi-panic,” said Laurence Parisot, head of employers’ group MEDEF. “The pace of bankruptcies has accelerated over the summer. We are seeing a general loss of confidence by investors. Large foreign investors are shunning France altogether. It’s becoming really dramatic.” MEDEF, France’s equivalent of the CBI, said the threat has risen from “a storm warning to a hurricane warning”, adding that the Socialist...

With the outcome of next month’s presidential election increasingly hazy, here’s a shred of clarity that investors can cling to: The tax rates they pay on investment income such as stock profits and dividends are almost certain to change. Whether rates rise or fall could affect the prices of some dividend-paying stocks, experts say. Some, mainly Republicans, believe that lower rates would boost the economy and lift markets. Under the current system, people pay the government 15 percent on most dividends and capital gains, the profits from selling investments. Both candidates’ proposals would divide taxpayers into two categories: Those who...

Large investors have retreated further into their shells this month as they await action from governments around the world to kick-start economic growth and prevent collapses in the Eurozone, a survey has shown. Over a third of investors responding to the monthly Bank of America Merrill Lynch fund manager survey said they were taking lower than normal risks in their portfolios. This was a significant shift from around a fifth of investors agreeing with this statement last month - which was already low. The BoA Merrill Lynch Risk and Liquidity Composite indicator, which measures market sentiment, has fallen below its...

We recently saw lots of sit-down strikes and demonstrations — the various efforts in Wisconsin, the Occupy movements, and student efforts to oppose tuition hikes. None of them mattered much or changed anything. There is a sit-down strike, however, that has paralyzed the country and has been largely ignored by the media. Most economists since 2009 have been completely wrong in their forecasts, reminding us that their supposedly data-driven discipline is more an art than a science. After all, a great deal of money is invested and spent — or not — based largely on perceptions, hunches, and emotions rather...

On Saturday, Carbonite CEO David Friend released a statement on his company’s website declaring that Carbonite had decided to “withdraw” advertising from Rush Limbaugh’s radio show in the wake of his controversial remarks involving Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke because it will “ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse”: Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse. However, it hasn’t done much...

'Dumb Money' Keeping Stocks Afloat: Analyst By Michael Baron 02/17/12 - 09:38 PM EST6 Comments Add Comment NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It wasn't the improvement in initial jobless claims or the growing likelihood that Greece will get another round of bailout money and stave off default that drove the stocks higher this week. And no, it wasn't Jeremy Lin either. Rather it was the so-called dumb money, according to Mark Arbeter, chief technical strategist at S&P Capital IQ, who was calling for a timeout for this rally a week ago. The bullishness just got to be too much to resist....

Even before he took the oath of office, Barack Obama embraced the financial crisis of 2008.  In the words of his then Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” and Obama saw the recession as an opportunity for him to play investor picking winners and losers with hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars.  This was his moment to “transform” the American economy to match his vision for a brave new world.  Lavishing billions on green technology was high on Obama’s list of favorites.  In just three years, his Administration has pumped $80 billion into...

I'm not sure if this has been posted on Free Republic. I am posting in case it hasn't been. Here are the top 20 contributors to Mitt Romney's campaign: Goldman Sachs $367,200 Credit Suisse Group $203,750 Morgan Stanley $199,800 HIG Capital $186,500 Barclays $157,750 Kirkland & Ellis $132,100 Bank of America $126,500 PriceWaterhouseCoopers $118,250 EMC Corp $117,300 JPMorgan Chase & Co $112,250 The Villages $97,500 Vivint Inc $80,750 Marriott International $79,837 Sullivan & Cromwell $79,250 Bain Capital $74,500 UBS AG $73,750 Wells Fargo $61,500 Blackstone Group $59,800 Citigroup Inc $57,050 Bain & Co $52,500 What does this tell you? Well,...