

Stock Manipulator, SEC Nemesis -- and 15 (2001) - cubix
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/25/magazine/25STOCK-TRADER.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print

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fname
...and still picks stocks for a living <http://www.lebed.biz/>

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flipbrad
Ho-ho-ho: "Lebed.biz/Jonathan Lebed is not a registered investment advisor or
a broker / dealer. Lebed.biz/Jonathan Lebed does not recommend whether to buy,
sell, or hold securities. All opinions expressed by Lebed.biz/Jonathan Lebed
are not a solicitation to buy, sell, or hold securities. "

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Tichy
Could somebody summarize why what he did was illegal? I gave up after ~1.5
pages. If all he did was to give stock trading advice under false names, is
that really illegal? I am actually surprised.

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ig1
You're not allowed to spread rumours you know to be untrue or create a false
impression of trading activity for the purpose of manipulating share prices.

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hyperbovine
Much further in you are informed that this is basically what all of Wall
Street does.

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ig1
Not quite. The departments which trade and the departments which write reports
on companies are completely separate and firms have to maintain information
barriers between them (aka Chinese Walls).

If a department was to write a report based upon a position they held, or if a
firms trading arm traded based upon a yet unpublished report that another
department had written, then in both cases the firms would likely be breaking
the law.

Financial firms normally have information registers, so if you have people
from either side of the information barrier discuss a company then that has to
be recorded and that information is used to restrict the actions of the
individuals involved. Passing restricted information over the barrier without
registering it can be enough to lose your licence even if the information
isn't used improperly.

However if you hold a position in a company you are perfectly free to go and
promote your view of that company as long as you declare you're own interest.
You're not allowed to pump rumours and there are specific restrictions on
projections, but you can perfectly freely talk about why you think a stock is
worth buying.

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flipbrad
"But weren't you scared to trade again?" "No." "This thing with the S.E.C.
didn't even make you a little nervous?" "No." "No?" "Why should it?"

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bombarolo
Should I mention Goldman Sachs story here?

