UBS Ends Sales of Leveraged ETFs

UBS AG’s U.S. brokerage unit stopped selling leveraged exchange-traded funds, a fast-growing segment of the asset-management market that some regulators say might be inappropriate for individual investors.

UBS Wealth Management Americas suspended sales of inverse and leveraged ETFs immediately, citing the “short-term nature of these securities,” the New York-based unit said yesterday in a statement.

Naked short selling banned permanently

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday made permanent a rule designed to curtail abusive "naked" short selling. "The new rule, Rule 204, requires broker-dealers to promptly purchase or borrow securities to deliver on a short sale," the SEC said. A temporary rule meant to curtail the practice was set to expire on July 31. The SEC said it is also working together with several self-regulatory organizations to make short sale volume and transaction data available.

Schumer Asks SEC to Ban Flash Orders Used by High-Speed Traders

Senator Charles Schumer asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ban “flash orders,” saying the transactions give high-speed traders an unfair advantage over other investors.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., Bats Exchange Inc. and Direct Edge Holdings Inc. hold these orders for milliseconds, giving their customers the opportunity to gauge demand before traders on other exchanges get the chance to bid, Schumer said in a letter to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro. Brian Fallon, a spokesman at Schumer’s office, confirmed the authenticity of the letter.

“Flash orders allow certain members of these exchanges to obtain access to order flow information before that information is made available to the public,” Schumer wrote. That allows “those members to use rapid trading programs to trade ahead of those orders and profit from advanced knowledge of buying and selling activity,” he added.

The senator said that if the SEC doesn’t prohibit flash orders, he will introduce legislation that would.

Javier Bardem leaves ‘Wall Street’ sequel

Javier “Friend-O” Bardem is leaving the sequel to the hit 1987 film “Wall Street,” which is tentatively titled “Money Never Sleeps.”

Javier Bardem (on the left) and his doppelganger, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (right).

The original starred Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen. This one will see Douglas reprise his role as Gordon Gekko, and will add Shia LeBeouf to the mix.

The movie is to begin filming in August, but Bardem won’t be part of it.

Bardem apparently has “five or six other offers,” according to one of his representatives.

I’ve got a suggestion for a replacement: Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I’m not convinced they aren’t the same person anyway.

High Frequency Trading

It is called high-frequency trading ‘ and it is suddenly one of the most talked-about and mysterious forces in the markets. Powerful computers, some housed right next to the machines that drive marketplaces like the New York Stock Exchange, enable high-frequency traders to transmit millions of orders at lightning speed and, their detractors contend, reap billions at everyone else’s expense. These systems are so fast they can outsmart or outrun other investors, humans and computers alike. And after growing in the shadows for years, they are generating lots of talk.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business/24trading.html

Dr. Marc Faber: More Helicopters?

Is Goldman Sachs Front Running the Entire Market?

Goldman Sachs just raised the S&P target for 2009 to 1,060. Why? It's not because things are "really" getting better. And it's not because they would be buyers in this market. No, it's because they need to pump this market, so they can dump their shares to you . . . at inflated prices that will be big losers for you.