The SIPA

A small firm seat on FINRA’s Board of Governors will be up for election soon and the petition process has begun.  The nominating committee chose to nominate W. Dennis Ferguon for the mid sized seat and some guy named Seth Waugh of Deustche Bank.  We have no idea who Seth is but we have known [...]

  IPO could become one of the greatest scams  Today is the day we all have all been told we are waiting for: The Facebook IPO!  Investors around the world will line up to get shares of the social media giant in the aftermarket and will no doubt see dollar signs in their eyes. The [...]

A Significant loss stirs the membership Recently FINRA announced to members a proposal for increased fees as well as a ‘significant loss’ for fiscal year 2011.  For many years FINRA has largely operated behind the wizard of Oz curtains and has told members what they felt they needed to hear rather then open the curtains [...]

Too little , too late Recently we have been receiving barbs from other trade groups that love using the “United We Stand” mantra that appears on the surface as an attempt to unite members, but of course this claim comes on the heals of insulting everyone and anyone on the way to rehab.  The small [...]

A FINRA approach could do wonders for America   I recently had the obligatory Easter phone call with my mother in New York.  In between questions about the kids and my wife and some occasional Obama bashing we got on the subject of the warm weather the entire country experienced this past winter.  Mom lives [...]

Members getting bombarded with money requests Recently Former National Adjudicatory Counsel (NAC) and current sitting members, Stephen Kohn and Karen Fischer sent a rather disturbing e-mail to members that caused many SIPA members to contact us out of concern.   In the correspondence Davidson and Kohn did their usual bash job in which they take shots [...]

What the Supreme Court decision might mean for you The recent ruling by the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal of the Standard Chartered is not a shocking surprise to many due to the sheer mass of appeals the Supreme Court is inundated with each year.  Our guess is that about ten minutes of [...]

Follow the money Recently the acclaimed “Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffet continued his calls for Americans to pay more to the federal government by way of taxes.  Warren has been telling everyone who will listen that he should pay more in taxes and so should other Americans.  The rhetoric by this buffoon is being hailed [...]

Happy New Year from all of us at the SIPA.   Before we start pondering the future for the Securities Industry we thought we would take a look back on 2011 and review the lessons we learned in the past year. Lesson #1:  The more things change the more they stay the same. Whether it was [...]

Mortgage crisis hits home As the country’s mortgage crisis spirals out of control and thousands upon thousands of homeowners walk away from their under water home, I can’t help but wonder if secretly the 600,000 stockbrokers are quietly smiling inside as the rest of America gets a taste of what its like to be a [...]

The SIPA has been fighting for year to try and get owners of Broker Dealers what was rightfully theirs from the merger of NASD and NYSE regulation into the newly formed FINRA.  Despite many obstacles and setbacks the case has now been sent to the Supreme Court of the United States to basically decide once [...]

Recently members of the board of the IBDA questioned whether certain individuals had a secret agenda in supporting a candidate that was not one of their own handpicked nominees. Karen Fisher now lists hereself along with Dumb and Dumber (Davidson and Kohn) as on the Board of IBDA and questioned other peoples agenda all the [...]

Could be time for certain NAC members to step down   Last week the SIPA shocked some in the industry by supporting David Sobel for the open position on the National Adjudicatory Council.  The fact that he was nominated by the FINRA nominating committee did not dissuade us and many members have indicated they think [...]

Brokers may soon hit Beijing As we watch randomly organized protestershit the street complaining about corporate greed, pollution and student loans, I can only picture the leaders of China smiling and thinking about how much money they will make. For the last two decades China has reaped the rewards of increasing its manufacturing capacity and [...]

I’ve had it with Washington! Enough already with your games, policies, deals, budgets, summits, partisan plans, jobs bills, debt deals, ENOUGH! You are all morons who have absolutely no idea how to create a job or wipe your ass without appropriating a sub committee to review the environmental effects of the toilet paper while appropriating funds for after wiping counseling for those who get diaper rash or a hemorrhoid.

Another reason we are supporting Sobel is that he is a man of his word and so are we. In 2009 Stephen Kohn and David Sobel were locked in a battle to contest the FINRA nominee for the open NAC seat and we decided to intervene so as to not split the contested dissident vote. After many conversations, David decided it was best for the small firm movement to step aside, support Stephen Kohn and not dilute the small firm vote and Kohn won in a landslide.

just in case things couldn’t get any worse, our President made sure to come out and sooth markets by telling them that “ It doesn’t mater what our credit rating is by some institution, we are the United States of America and will always be Triple A rated”. Oy Vey. This is real life Mr. President, not a Hollywood West Wing version in which they create some false moment

The Sipa has learned that Ken Norensberg has been elected to a second term on the Finra Board of Governors by a relatively large vote. Although not official, we believe Ken received 836 votes while Alan Davidson received 525 votes

Honey, I think we may have a problem..we have over $50,000 in credit card debt and our home equity loan is maxed out and our bank account only has a couple hundred bucks in it until I get paid again next month. I don’t think we can do that Disney cruise we planned for later this year with Tom and Nancy. Not sure we can get Marcia that nose job either and Bobby may have to just keep wearing hand me downs

Bernie Madoff is in jail for taking money from investors and then using that money to pay off early investors yet our leaders are saying unless we can write 2 trillion dollars worth of bonds we will default. Maybe they should have done this with Madoff and asked for permission to sell 50 billion in bonds to pay off all the victims?

Erroneous policies of the Regulators, whose one size fits all approach, are eroding the business and causing our small firm saviors to shut their doors. It is the equivalent of dropping an Atom bomb on an ant. They just do not get it!

Our project, is to help rebuild homes and lives in the St. Bernard Parish. We are asking you to give a day to make a difference. No skills required. Simply register to attend the conference, and indicate you are interested in volunteering to help rebuild homes and lives. There will be a reception for volunteers Tuesday evening, in addition, FSX will pay for Tuesday evening hotel accommodations.

After living through various bubbles over the last 20 years I have become an expert in predicting the next bubble to implode. I use a highly scientific procedure and analysis that very few people in this world have access to. This astonishing discovery method is tried and true and I’m about to share it with you, my loyal readers, right now for free. I go to parties, conferences, neighborhood Barbeques and I watch the talking bobble heads on T.V. and then when I notice that everyone is talking about a certain investment, its time to get out as soon as possible.

A veteran of severla Financial Industry Association election battles, Ashley will be using her experience In her new role with The SIPA. She plans on implementing membership dues and organizing the long term goal of becoming a new SRO. In addition member benefits unlike any other trade organization will be unrolled later this fall. This will include health benefits, legal defense teams for members experiencing FINRA problems and more prominent voice with Congress. Membership in The SIPA will still be open to all persons associated with the financially regulated firms.

Busacca, who aired his grievances to me in a phone interview, complains that Finra won't take legal action against large firms but has become extremely picky when dealing with small Broker/dealers.Representatives of the small firms who sit on Finra's 22-member board are outgunned by those that represent big- and medium-sized operations as well as the 11 appointed public members. Just a couple of years ago there were more than 6,000 small independents in the brokerage industry, providing thousands of jobs. That number is now down to around 4,100 and there's been a big drop-off in just the last few months.

If you recall, In January we released a story tracking Berkshire Hathaway to Goldman Sachs and other powerful Wall Street names Click here to read and suggested that the Wizard of Omaha may not be as clairvoyant to market and economic trends as he has indicated. I even received some scathing e-mails from readers who were aghast that I would even suggest that Berkshire would trade on inside information. A few short weeks later we learned that the CEO of Berkshire was trading on inside information:

When choosing a candidate take into account this staggering number we just quoted. Ask them what they intend to do to help stop the slaughter of small firms through excessive regulation and costly rule implementation that does little or nothing to protect the public. Ask them what rules they would change and keep the same and ask them if they know what it costs to implement the various trade reporting, AML and PCAOB audits

When I talked to several fellow committee members privately I was surprised to learn how much we had in common in our views and perceptions of regulation. The only problem was that several expressed concerns to me about raising their voices or offering their opinion for fear of alienating their FINRA examiners.

The real worry is if oil is no longer priced in U.S. dollars and instead switches to the Euro or Yen or Cheech and Chong. Quite frankly, once oil is no longer priced in U.S. dollars our prices will double overnight from their current levels. Washington doesn’t want to address this however and instead is focusing on Oil companies and price gouging.

President Obama's strange way of calculating everything from unemployment rates to budget cuts could be the key to showing economic growth in other areas. Unemployed people are being dropped off the unemployed list so why can't unsold homes be dropped from the unsold inventory list? read the full story for our ideas.

FINRA’s recent proposal to require more back office personnel to be registered is the latest in a series of head scratchers for the regulatory giant that is under fire by Congress for not protecting investors. The timing and the need for the proposal is in direct contrast to the needs being laid out by their big brother at the SEC

Some where along the way the unions went from protecting workers to intimidating them as well as our Government. I never really understood this phenomenon. GM, Ford and Chrysler have had strong unions for years and years and it afforded workers solidarity and negotiating power. That was until a guy with a high school education started making $80,000 per year to run a bolt through some sheet metal.

Given the fact that our highly regulated brokerage industry caused the collapse of the free markets and our economy, I don’t think we are in a position to ask that others fall under our regulation. I’m not sure we should be worrying about more Madoff scams when in fact FINRA dropped the ball on both Madoff and Sanford as well as a dozen others.

We hope that FINRA's attempt in all this is to allow a truly fair and open system rather then trying to dilute the vote among small firm candidates while counting on their pet trade organizations to support a single candidate of their choosing. Even if that's the case it will still be the voice of the small firm and this is what we have been fighting years for The SIPA intends to sit this election out and allow the members to decide for themselves who should speak for them.

The decision by the Trustee is puzzling on so many levels I almost do not know where to begin so In keeping with my theme from my speech last week to Broker Dealers at the Financial Services Exchange meeting in Atlanta: Follow the money!

AS WELL AS AN INCREASE IN COMMISSIONS Houston we have a problem. Perhaps no phrase has ever spoken more about a problem than these famous words from Apollo 13 years ago. One little problem turned into thousands of people working day and night to try and solve a ‘problem’ that eventually led to the safe [...]

I could not understand what sort of Business savvy former and current regulators would bring to a board. They obviously do not know marketing nor food coloring techniques that appeal to 5 year olds eating macaroni and cheese so why the mutual attraction ? As always just ask one simple question: How is Goldman Sachs involved in this?

There are so many people that I would like to thank for being a part of my life but it would be impossible to list them all here wouldn’t it? On second thought, maybe its time to live for NOW and not worry about time so in no particular order I just want to thank the following people for being an important part of my life in 2010 and hopefully in the years to come…

While investors are left twisting in the wind and worrying about their financial futures, the trustee appointed to the Madoff mess has been billing to the tune of over 2 million per week for over two years. Ronnie Sue Ambrosino of the Madoff Victims Coalition joins SIPA radio for a one hour interview linked here

Mark Madoff, the troubled son of Ponzi master Bernie Madoff was found dead over the weekend from an apparent suicide. In other news, Frank Pantangeli slit his wrists while in prison just hours before he was scheduled to testify against Michael Corleone, apparently he was distressed that his brother was flying back to Sicily. In Brooklyn, Frankie Carbone accidentally locked himself in a frozen compartment of a meat truck and froze to death and Jimmy “Two Times” was the victim of a robbery on a deserted street.

The economy has been in the toilet since 2007 and although everyone keeps saying “the 2nd half of next year we should see a rebound” the stark truth is that there is no rebound in site and anyone saying differently is either a shill for the government or an absolute moron. The Financial Reform Act which was thrust down the throats of Financial Institutions and taxpayers will be the “Grinch that Stole Christmas”.

Say what? Merrill Lynch is a small firm? Last I checked they were one of the largest firms on the street with more reps then most cities. Now I know that they have many divisions and brokerage arms at these mega firms but give me a break.

The Republicans swooped into office and now everyone is expecting huge change in Washington yet your first evidence of more of the same was the speech by minority leader John Boehner on election night. Lets be realistic, this race was fueled by the phenomenal success of the Tea Party and they are the ones who energized the campaign, yet once victory was secured in comes a 21 year congressmen with a nice suit, overly tanned and full or pats on his back when in fact he offered little or no support to tea party candidates who were running under the Republican ticket.

We can only do so much here and we think its important to let the candidates know how you feel instead of just beating us up. We are here to help the small firms and brokers out there and unlike other group sout there we believe in accountability and if our guys aren't living up to their word then we will find others that will.

As it turns out maybe Lisa Roth was the only one being truthful or perhaps was the only one who would have the gumption to stand up to the FINRA board. That remains to be seen but the point is that the explanation given by FINRA is the exact SAME explanation that was included with the proxy ballot. As outlined last week, the rationale behind the lack of transparency makes no sense at all

On the surface this seems reasonable to an untrained ear, however when the top ten employees are making over a million a year in base salary without any limits on their capacity to earn more, doesn’t this affect their ability to regulate as well?

Am I the only one noticing that almost all economic data coming out of our Government is not only false and misleading but is often times wrong? More importantly , most of the Financial press out there seems to roll over and not even question numbers that are either flat out wrong or are more propaganda then reality. Take today’s jobless claims for instance. The Associate Press reported: “New unemployment claims fall to lowest in 2 months

The message sent to Wall Streets elite firms is that if you commit securities fraud you may have to use your debit card to pay the fine and do not worry about jail time as long as you sing like a canary after your caught. Poor ‘Snooki” apparently takes her Italian heritage seriously and decided not to betray her family on Jersey Shore. Too bad she didn’t have info on Joey taking steroids to get better abs. The best part is the judge in the case lambasting Snookie.

Let’s start with the first fact, that the recession never really ended. I know all the economists out there will tell you differently and will show you a chart and technical garbage to disprove this point but the reality is that almost each and every month our government has been claiming one set of numbers and then restating them often times dramatically the next month.

The recent FINRA Board election was nothing less then astounding considering the fact that the SIPA members faced not only strong challenges by well known FINRA nominees but by habitual board candidates that appeared to try and dilute the dissident vote as a favor for FINRA. Much to our surprise though, the members and supporters came out in droves and quite frankly the margin of victory was nothing short of astonishing.