News.com.au – An independent monitor of local hedge funds has rubbished claims domestic financial stocks would be targerted if the ban on short selling was lifted.

Australian Fund Monitors’ chief executive Chris Gosselin hosed down concerns expressed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to extend the short selling ban on financial stocks for a third time until May 31.

The risk of damage from aggressive or predatory practices from short selling justified any loss of market efficiency or price discovery caused by extending the ban, ASIC said last Thursday.

Read Complete Article

Tags: asic, australian securities and investments commission, chief-executive, chris gosselin, financial stocks, last thursday, market efficiency, news-com-au, predatory practices, price-discovery, risk, third time

Tacoma News Tribune – Tucked among the hedge funds and the famous names on Bernard Madoff’s client roster is an unlikely group of about 800 people – strangers to one another, yet all listed at the same anonymous Denver address.

Now, they are discovering a painful common bond, shared with at least two previous groups of stung investors. For at least the third time in as many years, the company behind Denver PO Box 173859 has turned up as a go-between in a collapsed Ponzi scheme.

The address belongs to Fiserv Inc., which served as middleman for Madoff and scores of regular Joe-and-Jill investors: dentists and doctors, insurance salesmen and builders who trusted Madoff to manage specialized individual retirement accounts.

Their losses with Madoff, together with earlier cases, raise questions about Fiserv and the risks inherent in what are known as self-directed IRAs. These financial products are an increasingly popular way of letting people invest in real estate or small businesses and other less-traditional investments.

Read Complete Article

Tags: bernard madoff, common bond, dentists, doctors, famous names, fiserv, fiserv inc, insurance salesmen, investors, losses, middleman, ponzi scheme, retirement, self directed iras, small businesses, tacoma-news-tribune, third time, traditional investments