With over 20,000 companies whose shares trade either on a U.S. exchange or in over-the-counter markets, there’s ample room for confusion. Fundamental research and an understanding about the way in which stocks are listed and traded can go a long way toward helping you make sound investment decisions.
What's New in Investor Education
- May 31, 2023
- May 24, 2023Volatility—market swings—can sometimes bring an uncomfortable surprise to investors: a margin call. When you buy stock on margin, your brokerage firm lends you cash, using assets in your account as collateral, to purchase securities. To trade on margin, you must have a margin account with your brokerage firm.
- May 15, 2023The failure of a firm might understandably cause some anxiety for its customers. However, should your firm cease operations, you shouldn’t panic: In virtually all cases, customer assets are safe and typically are transferred in an orderly fashion to another registered brokerage firm.
- May 11, 2023If you own crypto assets, or are considering doing so, it’s valuable to have at least a basic understanding of blockchain, the technology protocol that powers most cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ethereum. Blockchain uses computer code to create, maintain and update information shared by blockchain participants.
- May 9, 2023Benchmarks play a valuable role for investors, providing a standard against which to measure an investment’s performance. Weighing the return on a particular stock, bond mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) against a comparable benchmark can help investors make more informed decisions on how to invest.
- April 12, 2023Structured notes with principal protection are a debt product. Their payoff profile typically reflects the combination of a bond and one or more reference assets such as an equity index, and may offer some degree of return of principal at maturity. While they can have safe-sounding names, they are not risk-free.
- April 10, 2023Phishing scams typically involve emails that falsely claim to be from a financial institution, credit card company or other familiar organization or service. Most of these emails attempt to lure you into providing sensitive personal information by requesting that you reply to the email or click on a link that mimics a legitimate website.
- April 5, 2023Keeping crypto assets safe involves a different set of challenges than keeping your cash, stocks or bonds secure. It’s important to learn about the different ways to store crypto assets.
- March 30, 2023FINRA has observed unusual price activity after the IPOs of certain small-cap issuers with operations outside the U.S. Regulators suspect some of these IPOs might have been manipulated in a ramp-and-dump scheme. If you’re solicited to invest in a newly issued small-cap stock, know the warning signs and take precautions.
- March 21, 2023Financial institutions have an obligation to safeguard your personal financial information, but you have an important role to play as well. Understanding how customer account takeover incidents and theft of personal financial information might occur and taking steps to minimize your risk can make a difference.
- March 16, 2023
FINRA has received a number of questions relating to a corporate action and trading halt in the Series A Preferred Shares of Meta Materials, Inc. (Meta Materials) that traded under the symbol MMTLP. This Investor Insights article provides general information about how corporate actions and trading halts are processed as well as specific information related to MMTLP.
- March 13, 2023Along with an increase in the number of investors has come growth in the variety of sources available to assist in making investment decisions. Use of online resources, such as social media, is prevalent. If you’re among those using social media as an investment tool, here are some tips to consider.
- March 8, 2023Women’s financial influence is growing, but they may not be making the most of their increased financial power. Investing can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be. Here are five ways women can take charge of their financial futures.
- March 7, 2023Most of us know someone who has been a victim of a financial scam, or we may have been a target ourselves. If you’ve been impacted by this type of crime, there are ways you can get assistance. These six steps can help you reclaim power from the fraudsters and begin to move forward.
- March 2, 2023You’ve made the decision to work with an investment professional. You might notice that some candidates have a string of letters after their name. Chances are that this alphabet soup refers to one or more professional designations. Here are three things to know as you sort through the various credentials.
- February 27, 2023If you want to save more, America Saves Week is the perfect opportunity to commit to a plan to do so. Taking the America Saves Pledge can be the nudge you need to help meet your savings goals. You’ll choose what you’re saving toward and how you plan to achieve it.
- February 24, 2023Saving for retirement can be daunting, so it’s no surprise that employer-sponsored retirement plans can be a key stepping-stone into the world of investing—and through your investments, to a healthy retirement nest egg. Don’t have access to an employer-sponsored plan? No problem. Here are 5 ways to start saving today.
- February 24, 2023Cryptocurrencies and other digital assets are often in the news. Unfortunately, the volatile and often opaque world of crypto makes it a fertile environment for stock scams. Here are some tips to keep from falling prey to a crypto-related stock scam.
- February 7, 2023A self-directed individual retirement account (IRA) is an IRA held by a custodian that allows investment in a broader set of assets than most IRA custodians permit. Custodians for self-directed IRAs may allow investors to invest retirement funds in “alternative assets” that have unique risks, including a lack of information and liquidity—and the risk of fraud.
- February 6, 2023Proxy statements are typically sent in the spring, indicating the start of “proxy season”—when most public companies prepare to hold their annual shareholders meetings. The proxy statements provide information relevant to shareholder votes scheduled for those meetings, including board elections, compensation packages, and shareholder proposals.
- February 6, 2023When it comes to calling the shots at a public company, CEOs run businesses on a day-to-day basis, but the board of directors shares in oversight of the company business. A public company’s board of directors is chosen by shareholders, and its primary job is to look out for shareholders’ interests.
- January 25, 2023Short interest is a snapshot of the total open short positions on the books and records of brokerage firms on a given date. FINRA and U.S. exchange rules require that this information be reported twice a month. Short interest data does not—and is not intended to—equate to the short sale volume data on FINRA’s website.
- January 23, 2023If you own a life insurance policy, you might be approached to exchange it for another new policy. You need to know that, even though the tax laws make the exchange income tax free and the new policy might appear better to you, you might lose—not gain—if you make the exchange.
- January 17, 2023Given their name, high-yield bonds might attract investors looking for products that offer the potential to increase their returns. But it’s important to remember that the level of return an investment might achieve generally correlates with its level of risk, and the bond market is no exception.
- January 17, 2023Many people prepare for the inevitability of death by creating wills or trusts, spelling out instructions about medical care through advance directives, and naming beneficiaries on retirement accounts. Sometimes overlooked in estate management is the transfer of securities that are in a non-retirement brokerage account, aspects of which can be planned ahead of time.
