Remember when WFC went to zero commish, and Don Bright said they didn't even need commissions????? How sick is this.???? -Trade: SEC Probing Co Unit's Trading Activities >ETFC DOW JONES NEWSWIRES March 1, 2007 2:40 p.m. DOW JONES NEWSWIRES E-Trade Financial Corp. (ETFC) said Thursday that the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an inquiry into a subsidiary's trading activities. The New York electronic brokerage said in its annual report filed with the SEC that the commission is looking into whether E-Trade Capital Markets LLC placed trades in a given security before placing an order on a client's behalf to trade the same security. The SEC is examining whether E-Trade and other specialist firms used the practice - known as "trading ahead" - between 1999 and 2005, according to E-Trade's filing. E-Trade said the SEC intends to "seek disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and penalties from any firm found to have engaged in trading-ahead activity to the detriment of its customers during that time period." E-Trade said that it's cooperating with the SEC investigation and that potential sanctions could have a material impact on the company's financial results.
In another thread I said: Thats exactly what this article said they did. They used disposable cell phones. It just too easy. There is nothing shocking about this. It happens every damn day on wall st. Its a den of thieves.
Bastards cost us all money and anything that threatens the integrity of the markets is bad for traders and honest market participants and ultimately the US economy. Wonder if they get to keep the house in the hamptons, probably. Until the SEC stops wiping WS'a collective arse and sentencing for the white collar scum gets every bit harsh as for those engaging in plain vanilla bank robbery the punishment won't fit the crime and white collar crime will continue to pay (Fastow anyone).
Yeah funny, but when Steve Cohen straight out pays millions of dollars for information before it hits the wire, he is called a genius. When Goldman Sachs starts trading against their research reports, using their vast M&A knowledge for prop desk and etc., they are called a great firm. When congressmen have consistent 15%+ returns on their stock holdings (almost all healthcare shares), the regulators are nowhere to be found. When NYSE specialists & Naz MMs used to take positions based pre-announcements (which they ALWAYS get hours or days ahead of time), they are called professionals. So who are really the thieves? There are two ways to not get caught. Either you are a large special entitiy aka the club, and the SEC simply turns the eye or knows that they can't win legally. Or you are smart enough to examine all the angles. Cause it's actually hard work trying to catch someone and convicting them of insider trading. Contrary to popular belief, the SEC are morons. It's amazing just how many blunders some of these guys have done and it still takes SEC a year or so to catch on. Only 4 years to find some guy who was posting info all over public message boards. They are going to white collar, they get conjugal visits there. They are just another example that desperately tries to keep confidence in this corrupt market. Meanwhile multimillion dollar option trades keep blatantly going off prior to buyout announcements and the SEC is nowhere to be found. So I ask again, who are the real sh*theads and thieves?
You obviously haven't followed the Aguirre debacle. This hasn't ended by any means. Here is Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/business/2007/03/01/wall-street-criminal-scam-biz-cx_lm_0301scam.html I am very gratified to see that people now agree that this behavior is detrimental to all of us, and it needs to be stopped. And yes, it rests with the captured regulators. Wait till I get to tell you about the prepaid debit cards. Well hell. I can now. Googel "Howell Woltz". He's telling an undercover IRS agent about how the money never hits the US, so the IRS doesn't see it. You get this special little debit card, with nothing but a number. you swipe it, and get your money. Great story. He's just gone State's evidence if that's a real term. He squealed. Oh, just wait. This is the toenail of the elephant. You see, you do your own research, pay your taxes..... you're all suckers. Booyah. You know, for all those bullshit Etrade commercials, like they want to help you, they should have to issue an apology to the people. Notice, they admit this could be material.
C'mon man , you got something against front running tape painting pumping and dumping trading ahead, through, over, under and out buying insider information selling selling insider information lying with a straight face ? Dude looked a lot like Waxie to me.
3000? Wow...you are quite conservative with your estimate! This really doesn't come as any surprise to me. Insider trading is an epidemic on Wall Streed and everyone knows it. Those "chinese walls" in the brokerage houses and Ibanks are nonsense. Back in my market-making days on the CBOE, we used to leave the floor for the last ten minutes of the trading day. That was when all of the "pick off" paper would come in - i.e.-that's when all of the insider trading would happen, and you didn't want to be on the other side of those trades. If these guys were smart, they would have used options to conduct their insider trading, then they never would have been caught. Everyone knows that oversight in the options biz is a joke.