Saturday, September 30, 2006
Ok…it’s really, really done…this is so great…
“In light of the mistakes S&P and Moody’s made by telling investors that Enron and WorldCom were safe investments just days before they filed for bankruptcy, the current state of regulation in the credit ratings industry could not stand anymore,” Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said in a statement. […]
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Thanks to Google Books we can read John Moody’s “The Art of Wall Street Investing” which was published in 1906…(the centenary…*!*!*)
John Moody was the founder of the credit rating agency Moody’s Investor Services and an early advocate of sound investing. Here are some tidbits from the preface…seemingly relevant today:
“Although the popular impression is probably the reverse, […]
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
This afternoon the US House passed the Senate version of the Credit Ratings Reform Act…after four years of review and discussion by the SEC and members of Congress.
This new law replaces a regulatory framework that is thirty five years old.
“It’s going to have enormous implications for our capital markets down the road,” said House Financial Services Committee […]
Monday, September 25, 2006
News is that the SEC EDGAR database will be reconfigured (reparsed?) to be accessible using the XBRL financial reporting standard…everyone can quickly and easily be a financial analyst…talk about doing quantitative analysis…easy as pie…
Story here: 10Ks, 8Ks…a thing of the past?
This is very cool…this is a new strategic direction for SEC and XBRL. Previously the Commission was […]
Friday, September 22, 2006
We moved a big step forward today…the Senate passed the Credit Agency Reform Act.
Here is a report from Marie Leone of CFO.com who has done an excellent job of covering this story.
Next step is reconciling the House and Senate versions…and old friends Senator Sarbanes and Congressman Oxley will undoubtably enjoy getting together again to do […]
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Songs of lawyers…weaving arguments…raising issues…claiming “space”…
Since I posted on “exchange versus over-the-counter”, Nasdaq (the exchange) has submitted a Comment to the SEC regarding the Request of the NYSE Automated Bond System (ABS)to sell “unlisted” securities.
The core of the Nasdaq Comment relates to the “listing” requirement that the NYSE ABS has proposed. Which says that only issuers who have […]
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Mr. Ray McDaniel, Chairman and CEO of Moody’s, had an interview with the media and publishing equity analyst of Goldman Sachs today. This was at the GS Communacopia Conference.
They discussed the interest rate enviroment, credit derivatives, the regulatory efforts in Washington, profitability and Moody’s cash flow.
You can hear the audiocast here: (Audiocast = 36 minutes)
On the regulatory […]
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
CHICAGO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Investor education firm INVESTools Inc. (IEDU) on Tuesday said it agreed to buy online brokerage thinkorswim Group Inc., a move that reshuffles the deck in the rapidly growing U.S. options market.
Full Reuters story here:
Rich price… $ 340 million (1/2 cash and 1/2 shares)
Which bought $ 54 million in revenues and $ […]
Friday, September 15, 2006
Oh the epic battle for control…deep in the forests of regulatory fog are two major entities struggling for ownership of the yet to be expanded retail corporate fixed income market.
In this case the struggle is between the NASD’s TRACE system and the NYSE’s Automated Bond System (ABS). Here is the legal face of the struggle:
SEC Release Number […]
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
I think I must be a regulatory junkie…that’s someone who actively searches out the views of the market regulators and attempts to parse the meaning of their statements.
There is a well known phenomonem for market participants who trade securities based on interest rates. They follow the Federal Reserve Board members and Chairman for every hiccup and […]
