Michael, while this thread is about trading, I would be glad to share with you the fun world of compliance. First off, I am a compliance officer for our firm, both sales and options. The brokerage industry, the backoffice work, is mostly pushing paper, keeping track of everything. One of the things that professionals in the industry have to do is have all advertising, sales, and promotional material approved by a sales principal. For a while the NASD and SEC have been debating what constitutes what.....roughly, emails must be approved before receiving and sending, so must letters and ads and newsletters etc. So far, CHAT sites are not considered such, but message boards are.
For instance, I print out and maintain a copy of every post I post or posts that anyone posts to me. I keep copies of every email I send and every email I keep (talk about an inbox!).
The law is not that he just can't hype stocks, which is clearly manipulant, but that as a professional, any publich appearance, especially one in written format, must be approved. I guess someone could win a court case declaring message threads outside these laws, but the NASD has always taken the approach of suspending someone's liscense and then asking questions later.
Let me tell, compliance is a lot of work, but it policies and intentions are admirable. They are protect all of us.
Regards,
Steve@yamner.com |
