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Securities Market Participants (United States)
Securities market participants in the United States include corporations and governments issuing securities, persons and corporations buying and selling a security, the broker-dealers and exchanges which facilitate such trading, banks which safe keep assets, and regulators who monitor the markets' activities. Investors buy and sell through broker-dealers and have their assets retained by either their executing broker-dealer, a custodian bank or a prime broker. These transactions take place in the environment of equity and equity options exchanges, regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or derivative exchanges, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For transactions involving stocks and bonds, transfer agents assure that the ownership in each transaction is properly assigned to and held on behalf of each investor. Supporting these transactions, there are three central securities depositories and four clearing organizations tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Issuer
Issuer is a legal entity that develops, registers, and sells securities for the purpose of financing its operations. Issuers may be governments, corporations, or investment trusts. Issuers are legally responsible for the obligations of the issue, and for reporting financial conditions, material developments, and any other operational activities as required by the regulations of their jurisdictions. The most common types of securities issued are equities: common and preferred stocks, and debt: bonds, notes, debentures, and bills. In the United States, the term "issuer" is defined by Section 2(4) of the Securities Act of 1933 as follows: The term "issuer" means every person who issues or proposes to issue any security; except that with respect to certificates of deposit, voting-trust certificates, or collateral-trust certificates, or with respect to certificates of interest or shares in an unincorporated investment trust not having a board of directors (or persons performing s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Series 7 Exam
In the United States, the Series 7 exam, also known as the General Securities Representative Exam (GSRE), is a test for entry-level registered representatives, to buy or sell security products such as corporate securities, municipal securities, options, direct participation programs, investment company products and variable contracts. The Series 7 is administered by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), an industry regulatory agency. The corequisite is the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam, a change FINRA enacted in 2018. In October 2018, the 250-question Series 7 exam was replaced by the current top-off exam that is now taken in conjunction with the SIE exam. (A correlative change was made to the Series 6 exam.) Structure The Series 7 is a three hour and forty five minute exam. It is held in one four-hour session. There are 125 questions on the test. Candidates have to score at least 72 percent to pass. The SIE Exam and the Series 7 Exam are co-requisite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Futures Association
The National Futures Association (NFA) is the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for the U.S. derivatives industry, including on-exchange traded futures, retail off-exchange foreign currency (forex) and OTC derivatives ( swaps). NFA is headquartered in Chicago and maintains an office in New York City. NFA is a non-profit, independent regulatory organization. NFA does not operate any markets and is not a trade association. NFA is financed from membership dues and assessment fees, and membership is mandatory for many market participants. History The National Futures Association (NFA) was created by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent agency of the US government created in 1974 that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures, swaps, and certain kinds of options. The Commodity Exchange Ac ... (CFTC) in September 1981 and began regulatory operations in 1982. Responsibilities NFA chi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commodity Broker
A commodity broker is a firm or an individual who executes orders to buy or sell commodity contracts on behalf of the clients and charges them a commission. A firm or individual who trades for his own account is called a trader. Commodity contracts include futures, options, and similar financial derivatives. Clients who trade commodity contracts are either hedgers using the derivatives markets to manage risk, or speculators who are willing to assume that risk from hedgers in hopes of a profit. History Historically, commodity brokers traded grain and livestock futures contracts. Today, commodity brokers trade a wide variety of financial derivatives based on not only grain and livestock, but also derivatives based on foods/softs, metals, energy, stock indexes, equities, bonds, currencies, and an ever growing list of other underlying assets. Ever since the 1980s, the majority of commodity contracts traded are financial derivatives with financial underlying assets such as stock ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FINRA
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD) as well as the member regulation, enforcement, and arbitration operations of the New York Stock Exchange. The U.S. government agency that acts as the ultimate regulator of the U.S. securities industry, including FINRA, is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Overview The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA's mission is to protect investors by making sure the United States securities industry operates fairly and honestly. In December 2019, FINRA oversaw 3,517 brokerage firms, 153,907 branch offices and approximately 624,674 registered securities representatives. FINRA has appro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naked Short Sale
Naked short selling, or naked shorting, is the practice of short-selling a tradable asset of any kind without first borrowing the asset from someone else or ensuring that it can be borrowed. When the seller does not obtain the asset and deliver it to the buyer within the required time frame, the result is known as a " failure to deliver" (FTD). The transaction generally remains open until the asset is acquired and delivered by the seller, or the seller's broker settles the trade on their behalf. Short selling is used to take advantage of perceived arbitrage opportunities or to anticipate a price fall, but exposes the seller to the risk of a price rise. The oldest documented example of a naked short in securities trading appears to be a 1609 maneuver against the Dutch East India Company by the Dutch trader Isaac Le Maire. Critics have advocated for stricter regulations against naked short selling. In 2005 in the United States, "Regulation SHO" was enacted, requiring that br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naked Short Selling
Naked short selling, or naked shorting, is the practice of short-selling a tradable asset of any kind without first borrowing the asset from someone else or ensuring that it can be borrowed. When the seller does not obtain the asset and deliver it to the buyer within the required time frame, the result is known as a " failure to deliver" (FTD). The transaction generally remains open until the asset is acquired and delivered by the seller, or the seller's broker settles the trade on their behalf. Short selling is used to take advantage of perceived arbitrage opportunities or to anticipate a price fall, but exposes the seller to the risk of a price rise. The oldest documented example of a naked short in securities trading appears to be a 1609 maneuver against the Dutch East India Company by the Dutch trader Isaac Le Maire. Critics have advocated for stricter regulations against naked short selling. In 2005 in the United States, "Regulation SHO" was enacted, requiring that bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Market Manipulation
In economics and finance, market manipulation is a type of market abuse where there is a deliberate attempt to interfere with the free and fair operation of the market; the most blatant of cases involve creating false or misleading appearances with respect to the price of, or market for, a product, security or commodity. Market manipulation is prohibited in most countries, in particular, it is prohibited in the United States under Section 9(a)(2) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, in the European Union under Article 12 of the ''Market Abuse Regulation'', in Australia under Section 1041A of the Corporations Act 2001, and in Israel under Section 54(a) of the securities act of 1968. In the US, market manipulation is also prohibited for wholesale electricity markets under Section 222 of the Federal Power Act and wholesale natural gas markets under Section 4A of the Natural Gas Act. The US Securities Exchange Act defines market manipulation as "transactions which create an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margin Account
In finance, margin is the collateral that a holder of a financial instrument has to deposit with a counterparty (most often their broker or an exchange) to cover some or all of the credit risk the holder poses for the counterparty. This risk can arise if the holder has done any of the following: * Borrowed cash from the counterparty to buy financial instruments, * Borrowed financial instruments to sell them short, * Entered into a derivative contract. The collateral for a margin account can be the cash deposited in the account or securities provided, and represents the funds available to the account holder for further share trading. On United States futures exchanges, margins were formerly called performance bonds. Most of the exchanges today use SPAN ("Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk") methodology, which was developed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1988, for calculating margins for options and futures. Margin account A margin account is a loan account with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sell Short
In finance, being short in an asset means investing in such a way that the investor will profit if the value of the asset falls. This is the opposite of a more conventional "long" position, where the investor will profit if the value of the asset rises. There are a number of ways of achieving a short position. The most fundamental method is "physical" selling short or short-selling, which involves borrowing assets (often securities such as shares or bonds) and selling them. The investor will later purchase the same number of the same type of securities in order to return them to the lender. If the price has fallen in the meantime, the investor will have made a profit equal to the difference. Conversely, if the price has risen then the investor will bear a loss. The short seller must usually pay a fee to borrow the securities (charged at a particular rate over time, similar to an interest payment), and reimburse the lender for any cash returns such as dividends that wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedge Fund
A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as short selling, leverage, and derivatives. Financial regulators generally restrict hedge fund marketing to institutional investors, high net worth individuals, and accredited investors. Hedge funds are considered alternative investments. Their ability to use leverage and more complex investment techniques distinguishes them from regulated investment funds available to the retail market, commonly known as mutual funds and ETFs. They are also considered distinct from private equity funds and other similar closed-end funds as hedge funds generally invest in relatively liquid assets and are usually open-ended. This means they typically allow investors to invest and withdraw capital periodically based on the fund's net asset value, whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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