CALPERS is about to hold a news conference regarding the announcement of the first lawsuit against the NYSE and 7 other defendants, primarily regarding "front-running", so says a report on CNBC today.
http://www.calpers.com/whatsnew/press/newscenter/attachments/lawsuit-nyse-specialist.pdf looks like a clear cut case of theft to me they might get a slap on the wrist, we know noone on wall street gets in trouble for this kind of thing, just ask the funds
I hope this is just some BS to incite investors into jumping back in the market. These pension funds and mutual funds are a scam of their own. Let the specialists pay a nice hefty fine and leave em alone.
About time! Even the specialist's lackey - SEC chair Donaldson might have to pay attention to this news. Change = opportunity
It's about time.....kudos to Calpers for having the gutts to do this. Everyone knows that the NYSE and the Specialist firms are part of an elite club to make money. A system that has a "governing" body, whose mission is also to turn a profit, is bound to be corrupt. I just can't believe that these improprieties have been allowed to continue during the electronic age. I totally agree with the lawyer who made the announcement, that Reed totally missed the boat, when he deemed the NYSE a very functional entity. Obviously, he didn't have the gutts to shake the tree - I'm sure he was probably bought for a handsome amount. Let this be the start of ending this corrupt party !!!!!!
Alleges that the NYSE was "complicit" in allowing the specialists to behave in such a "front-running" manner . . . Interesting! Another issue is whether or not the NYSE can even be sued. Stay tuned!
I guess this will put COCO in perspective. These are the leading class action lawyers in the country and I doubt they would invest in a massive case like this unless they were very sure of a big payday. Like most class action cases though, they will get hundreds of millions and the people who actually were hurt will receive some worthless coupon or something. This case is really totally inappropriate for class action status, as individual questions predominate over common questions. You can't just file a case and say "They are a bunch of crooks. Pay me." , which is pretty much what they have done. The NYSE will claim, and rightly so, that each incident is different and has to be looked at individually. Hence, class treatment is inappropriate. In the Nasdaq class action there was a pattern of abusive behavior in keeping spreads wide through conspiracy. So that common element was more imnportant than each transaction, because it basically infected each and every transaction. Here, no one is claiming every trade or even most trades were rigged.
I read that the CEO of Alliance Capital is going out to Sacramento this week to meet with CALPERS and basically beg that they don't yank their money out of Alliance. He's meeting with the Oregon Pension Fund guys the next day. Enjoy the road trip!!:eek: