February 13, 2007
Dear NASD Member:
Last year I sent a letter to members that highlighted new and existing regulations that were of particular significance to NASD’s examination program. The letter was designed to offer you guidance by identifying areas of potential examination focus, allowing you to enhance related supervisory and compliance procedures and systems at your firm. Because the
Q1. My firm has been granted an exemption from both the recording and reporting requirements of the OATS Rules and does not currently have an obligation to report to OATS. Does my firm’s OATS exemption extend to the Consolidated Audit Trail (“CAT”) recording and reporting requirements?
A1. No. Neither SEC Rule 613 nor the CAT NMS Plan provide exemptive relief to any class of broker-dealers. As
Investors should be allowed to invest in all types of securities. Investors should not be discriminated against based on investment balance or net worth and should not have to pass a test to be eligible for certain investments. Brokers, such as Schwab, Fidelity, and Robinhood, and investment product providers, such as Proshares, all do a great job of informing investors of the risks associated
The Member Firms' Nexus to Crypto topic of the 2025 FINRA Annual Regulatory Oversight Report (the Report) informs member firms’ compliance programs by providing annual insights from FINRA’s ongoing regulatory operations, including (1) regulatory obligations, (2) findings and effective practices, and (3) additional resources.
I believe that the proposed regulation in its effort to protect investors way oversteps the line between being helpful by ensuring that investors can make informed choices and being harmful by assuming it knows best what those choices should be and who should be allowed to make such choices and who should be banned from making them. Leveraged funds have been a part of my portfolio, including my
In general, I stick to conservative broad index funds for my investments, especially retirement. That said, I also see value in investing in funds like reverse volatility funds from time to time when the opportunity to benefit from stability presents itself.
I am very well versed in the risks of the market, which is why the majority of my investments are well diversified, but if want to invest a
The proposed amendment to FINRA 4560 is a laughable attempt at improving naked short selling internal control measures, actual regulatory action, or really any kind of further obligation on the part of the involved broker-dealers. There have been hundreds if not thousands of regulatory "actions" taken by FINRA related to short sale, and misreporting/misclassification of shorts. This
Financial social media influencers or finfluencers are growing in popularity as a cheap way to reach a new generation of investors. But using this newer form of advertising comes with risks. On this episode, we learn more about the regulatory requirements around the use of social media influencers and hear some best practices for firms looking to make use of “finfluencer” programs.
As the world’s largest securities self-regulatory organization, NASD has been helping to bring integrity to the markets and confidence to investors for more than 60 years.
Raising additional barriers to entry different types of investments runs a serious risk of exacerbating economic inequality. Public knowledge of investing topics has increased dramatically over the last few years as access to the market has improved for general public. There will always be those who choose riskier investments and there will always be those who choose safer investments, but it
