New Stock Market Blog

I have recently started a new blog, Fraud on the Market, arising from my day job, which is senior legal assistant at a law firm which handles mostly securities-related litigations and arbitrations. Although I am not an attorney, I have picked up some useful advice in my nearly four decades of experience in the securities industry, and I’d like to share it.

The blog will dip into topics of interest to investors, particularly those who are new to it, or who know just enough to get into trouble. The truth is, while most advisors and brokers are honest, they are in it for the money, just like anyone else, and the lure of big commissions can easily warp the judgement of the best-intended. There are thousands of securities arbitrations filed nationwide every year, and uncounted numbers of court cases. I will be talking about some of the common scams I’ve seen, and trends in securities fraud (these things happen in cycles; the big problem was once limited partnerships, then churning, now it’s system outages and unsuitable margin accounts). With luck, you can avoid them.

If you’re in the market, or know someone who is, check out my blog. Since I’m not a lawyer, I don’t talk like one, so I try to present issues without legal jargon. And although I am (again) not a lawyer, nor am I currently licensed to sell stocks, I can try to answer general questions or refer you to someone who can.

The bottom line is, most people don’t deal with stockbrokers every day. I do. And if I can help you not need to call my firm because you’ve just lost your nest egg, that’s a good day for both of us.

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Losing Cash in the Crash

When it comes to fiction, you “write what you know.” When it comes to non-fiction, you “write what you want others to know.”

I usually limit my meanderings to matters of fiction, since that’s where I have the most experience, but anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to my site knows that I have also written one non-fiction work, How to Know if Your Stockbroker is Ripping You Off (and What You Can Do About It).

Recent events have thrust this booklet into the limelight like never before. (And before we go any further, I am not a lawyer and I do not dispense legal advice. As it says repeatedly in my book, if you want legal advice, hire an attorney. It even tells you where to look.)

The purpose of Stockbroker is to help people decide if they need a lawyer. Most folks who will lose money in the market now (or ever) will shrug their shoulders, say “Well, that’s why they call it speculation,” and soldier on. And most of them will be right. But just because the entire market is tanking doesn’t mean that all of your losses are due to that, or that you’ve just made a bad choice by investing. It may be that the market crash is exposing weaknesses built into your portfolio by your broker’s bad choices. In other words, while some (temporary) losses are inevitable, some are not.

They say you should write the book you want to read. I wrote this book because I saw a need. Too many people have put their money (and their faith) into a system they don’t understand, and agents they trust but don’t really know. This book doesn’t explain the system, but it gives you some signposts that may warn you of trouble, and if you see those signs, where to find help.

Because right now, we all need every bit of help we can get.

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