I could not have said it better myself! Why would this supposedly educated twerp even draw attention to himself or this website with this jibberish? Is it legal to smoke a blunt if you don't get caught, gimme a break.
...Whether its legal or not is dependant on how it is done...if u call up your buddy who is a trader at a large HF and say I am long Harry's Hot Pastrami Inc. and think it is a good buy b/c they make the best pastrami and are going to be a great company and you s/b in this stock, then that is perfectly legal. However if you call up your buddy and say, listen, i am long HHP, why dont you do me a favor and buy 50,000 shares so i can make a quick buck and I'll kickback some cash to you personally or scratch your back in some market related way, then that is clearly illegal. Of course this type of thing happens all the time and most of the time people get away with it...but that dosent mean people don't get caught and fined, have liscences revoked, get fired, etc. In short, if you need to be involved in a criminal activity, this is probably a pretty good one as opposed to say, robbing a bank or something, however I always have felt that a good trader can make enough money without resorting to such shenadigans.
strategy used by mutual fund and portfolio managers near the year or quarter end to improve the appearance of the portfolio/fund performance before presenting it to clients or shareholders. Performance reports and a list of the holdings in a mutual fund are usually sent to clients every quarter. To window dress, the fund manager will sell stocks with large losses and purchase high flying stocks near the end of the quarter. These securities are then reported as part of the fund's holdings. Another variation of window dressing is investing in stocks that don't meet the style of the mutual fund. For example, a precious metals fund might invest in stocks that are in a hot sector at the time, disguising the fund's holdings, so clients really have no idea what they are paying for. Window dressing may make a fund appear more attractive, but you can't hide poor performance for long.
It`s all in the approach. Stock pools that are created to "corner" or sustain an artificial price are illegal and considered manipulation. But, if you are just a large buyer who happens to drive the price up while accumulating..well this happens everyday. And, if you are feeding it back out on the way up...all the while there is "a change in beneficial ownership"..i.e NO painting of the tape..well this also happens everyday and is legal.
HYdro, I def dont think the invesment banks are lilly white. They have done some incredibly shady chit, I believe more so in the past, than now. Sure they had analysts write biased reports, but that was more so to keep interest in stocks that they had an investment banking interest in, as opposed to them pumping the stock price up, so they can dump. They give stock to their brokers at times at the bid or even below the bid, and let them sell to clients at the offer plus mrk up, and let the brokers keep the spread (back when spreads were spreads). Most of this was done to keep the deals coming, not so much to give the firm a fat profit on their position. In the bucket shops, the firms would manipu;ate the price of some dog chit, 1 million share float stock from 5 to 15 ONLY so they could dump their stock.
Everyone should read the link given above under 1). That paragraph states it shall be illegal to create a "false and misleading appearance" with regard to the trading activity in a stock. That is one of the biggest tools in the toolbox of the NYSE specialist. Making a stock look weaker so that he can buy, and vice versa. As a matter of fact, if you are in the business of hiring NYSE floor specialists, you *fire* him if doesn't "create a false and misleading appearance", and you get someone who will.
I'm not sure, but you might have assumed a little much. Its different if he is a partner, not some employee/friend; "who's going to pay for my "indiscretions"". Its his choice. To hire, to fire, to do as he pleases. And I am not in the position to question anything. But the next time you feel like blowing the whistle/crying wolf when nothing is even wrong, you take a stab at it and let me know. Legal fees? LOL. (thats really all I can do when there are so many hateful (yes, that is exactly what it is. No, not complaining, whining, or critical. Just hateful. There is so much of this on this board.) Good luck tomcole.
As far as I am aware you will not be allowed to open positions relating to a particular share price if to do so would result in you, or other acting in concert together, having an exposure to that share price which is equal to or exceeding the amount of a declareble interest in the relevant company.:eek:
Hey: I see that you folks are still beating this horse to death. Let me help you a little bit. First, the answer you are looking for is "Yes" it is illegal Second, I refer you to one of two resources. You can check with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or you can check with the Attorney General of the State of New York, where the honorable Elliot Spitzer has a team of folks working on these cases. If you have knowledge of such manipulation going on, they will take time to explain it to you in detail. Finally, some of you may remember that Citigroup was fined (big fine) for using the same tactics to manipulate the bond market. Use Google or get back to me with a PM if there is any controversy. Bye Steve