ON THE MONITOR
SEC’s Python Project To Cut Down the Forest in Complex Securities
April 25, 2010
As King Arthur contended in Monty Python’s hunt for the Holy Grail, you can’t cut down “the mightiest tree in the forest” with a herring.
Yet, investors some times are asked to do just that, no matter how sophisticated they are.
The “flip book” for the synthetic collateralized debt obligation that is at the heart of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil complaint against Goldman Sachs Group, for instance, is 66 pages.
And the prospectus for the Abacus 2007-A1 synthetic SDO at issue is hundreds of pages long. You really have to want to dig into the numbers, no matter how far back they sit, if you want to understand what you’re investing in and how the payments might get paid out.
THE WEEK AHEAD:
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28
WEBCAST: Reviewing FinCEN Oversight Reports
2:00 p.m., House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Hearing, 2220 Rayburn House Office Building
SPEECH: Ethiopis Tafara, Director, SEC, Office of International Affairs
9 a.m., Practising Law Institute, New York, “Global Capital Markets & U.S. Securities Laws”
EVENT: Global High-Frequency Trading Outlook: LATAM/Brazil, Europe, Asia & Canada
7:30 a.m., Capital Markets Consortium, Bayards, New York
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
SPEECH: James Kroeker, Chief Accountant, SEC
8:30 a.m., Baruch College, New York, 2010 Financial Reporting Conference
FORUM: Municipal Bankruptcy Protection & Bond Restructurings
8:30 A.M., SIFMA Conference Center, 120 Broadway, New York
EVENT: Challenges and Opportunities Arising from Growth in Managed Accounts
7:30 a.m., Capital Markets Consortium, Bayards, New York
THE WEEK THAT WAS:
SEC “Ignored the Data” In Approving Short-Sale Restrictions
SEC “Ignored the Data” In Approving Short-Sale Restrictions
FINRA Fines HSBC Securities, US Bancorp for ARS Violations
Thomson Reuters Launches Data Distribution Network
The Next Bottleneck in Trading Speed: Software
IPC Systems Expands Toronto Presence
SEC Risks Harm With High-Frequency Trading Curbs, CME CEO Says
10 things to know about the Goldman case
Buy side mostly mum about SEC's equity market review
