By Lori Schock, Director of the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy

There has been a lot of talk recently about day trading. Some tout it as a way to make big money fast and others have unfortunately fallen victim to the risks of engaging in this type of speculative investing. If you are thinking about day trading, I urge you to think again. Day trading is serious business and not something you just dabble in for fun, particularly if you are using leveraged investment strategies or trading leveraged products.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned investor, day trading is a complicated and risky form of investing. Bottom line?unless you understand the risks you’re taking, and the economics and performance of leveraged investment stratagies, such as trading on margin, or using options or leveraged products, you should not engage in day trading.

Day trading involves actively buying and selling securities within the same day,...

What are the secrets behind some of the most successful women in the world? Each week designer Rebecca Minkoff talks to women from all walks of life, from CEOs to artists, and shows us what life is like without the pretty filters in order to help you navigate what it means to be vulnerable, how loss can make you stronger, and other ways to make your inner superwoman shine. Join us in being Superwomen, together! Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/superwomen/support

This webinar will introduce StartOut Pride Economic Impact Index™ (SPEII), a data-driven platform to help businesses, governments, investors and grantors tap into the unrealized potential of ‘out’ LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.

The SPEII visualizes the unrealized potential and thus growth opportunities for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs in terms of jobs, patents, fundraising and company exits, with city-to-city comparison features, on a data-driven AI-powered platform via StartOut's website.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on LGBTQ+ workplace protections and the recent civil rights developments, all eyes are on businesses, governments and institutions to diversify their leadership and talent.

In this spirit, the SEC Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation is collaborating with StartOut in this webinar presenting SPEII, as part of its work to proactively identify issues encountered by underrepresented founders and their investors.

SEC Office of the...

What are the secrets behind some of the most successful women in the world? Each week designer Rebecca Minkoff talks to women from all walks of life, from CEOs to artists, and shows us what life is like without the pretty filters in order to help you navigate what it means to be vulnerable, how loss can make you stronger, and other ways to make your inner superwoman shine. Join us in being Superwomen, together! Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/superwomen/support

You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

w/ Martha Miller, Director, Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation

If you are like us, you are a huge fan of Showtime’s drama series “Billions” and secretly wish you were Bobby Axelrod or maybe you are a Chuck fan. We promise not to tell! Either way, you may be afraid of the SEC and a little confused about what they actually do. In this episode, we had the honor of chatting with Martha Miller, Director of the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation at the SEC. We discussed how she is making the SEC a “hip” and very helpful place for small businesses and new investors alike in her role as Director of the SEC’s newest office.

Read below for some excerpts from our conversation -

Listen to “Say What? The Truth About What the Heck the SEC Really Does” w/ Martha Miller, Director, Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation in full in the Spotify app

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee will hold a virtual public meeting on September 24, 2020.  The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. ET, is open to the public via live webcast, and will be archived on the Committee's website for later viewing.

The Committee will hold two panel discussions: a discussion regarding self-directed IRAs, and a discussion regarding minority community investor inclusion. The full agenda is available here.

Members of the Committee represent a wide variety of investor interests, including those of individual and institutional investors, senior citizens, and state securities commissions. For a full list of Committee members, see the Committee's webpage.

The Investor Advisory Committee was established to advise the SEC on regulatory priorities, the regulation of securities products, trading strategies, fee structures, the effectiveness of disclosure, and on initiatives to protect investor interests and...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an award of over $2.5 million to joint whistleblowers whose tip based largely on highly probative independent analysis of a public company’s filings led to several successful enforcement actions.  In addition to their tip, the whistleblowers provided helpful assistance early in the investigation, which helped save Commission time and resources. 

“Detailed analysis by outsiders of companies can have a significant impact on the enforcement of the federal securities laws,” said Jane Norberg, Chief of the Office of the Whistleblower.  “Today’s award demonstrates the Commission’s commitment to awarding individuals who provide high quality independent analysis that leads to successful enforcement actions.”

The Commission has awarded approximately $510 million to 92 individuals since issuing its first award in 2012.  This includes awards to 25 individuals in this fiscal year, totaling...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s efforts are centered, first and foremost, on the health and safety of our employees and all Americans. We also are focused on, among other things:

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two Maryland companies and their principals for a scheme that allegedly defrauded approximately 1,200 investors, many of them African immigrants, of more than $27 million.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Dennis Jali, John Frimpong, and Arley Johnson, directly and through their companies 1st Million LLC and The Smart Partners LLC, falsely told investors that their funds would be used by a team of skilled and licensed traders for foreign exchange and cryptocurrency trading, promising risk-free returns of between 6% and 42%. The complaint alleges that the defendants often targeted vulnerable African immigrants and exploited their common ancestry and religious affiliations. The complaint further alleges that Jali, who claimed to be a pastor and falsely held himself out as a self-made millionaire and expert trader, rented office space to conduct in-person meetings and give the appearance of a legitimate...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. has agreed to pay more than $67 million to settle charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).  In a parallel action, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York today announced that Herbalife will pay a criminal fine of more than $55 million for a total of more than $122 million paid in both actions.      

The SEC’s order finds that Herbalife’s Chinese subsidiaries made payments and provided meals, gifts, and other benefits to Chinese officials in connection with obtaining sales licenses, curtailing government investigations of Herbalife China, and removing negative coverage of Herbalife China in state-owned media.  As set forth in the order, Herbalife China managers asked employees to falsify expense...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against BorgWarner Inc., a motor vehicle parts manufacturer headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, for materially misstating its financial statements by failing to account for certain asbestos liabilities.

The SEC’s order finds that from 2012 to 2016, BorgWarner failed to report over $700 million in liabilities associated with future asbestos claims. According to the SEC’s order, BorgWarner did not conduct any substantive quantitative analysis to estimate these asbestos claims, despite possessing nearly 40 years of historical raw claims data. According to the order, BorgWarner erroneously relied on untested assumptions in concluding that it could not estimate its liabilities for these claims, including, for instance, that its products were unique among asbestos defendants and that industry benchmarks were inapplicable for purposes of calculating an estimate. The SEC order finds that as a result of...

The Securities and Exchange Commission is closely monitoring the impact of Hurricane Laura on investors and capital markets.

The SEC divisions and offices that oversee companies, accountants, investment advisers, mutual funds, brokerage firms, transfer agents, and other regulated entities and investment professionals will continue to closely track developments. They will evaluate the possibility of granting relief from filing deadlines and other regulatory requirements for those affected by the storm. Entities and investment professionals affected by Hurricane Laura are encouraged to contact Commission staff with questions and concerns:

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has filed an emergency action against Florida-based investment adviser Coral Gables Asset Management LLC and its sole owner, David C. Coggins, in connection with an alleged fraudulent offering. On Aug. 20, 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen M. Williams granted the SEC's request for emergency relief, including an asset freeze and an order for records preservation, against Coggins and Coral Gables, as well as two entities charged by the SEC as relief defendants.

According to the SEC's complaint, Coral Gables and Coggins solicited investors for a private fund they managed by misrepresenting the fund's past performance, the amount of assets they were managing, and Coggins' experience as a portfolio manager. For example, the complaint alleges that one document Coggins provided to investors and potential investors showed 37 months of positive monthly performance even though, in reality, in...

Good morning. This is an open meeting of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, under the Government in the Sunshine Act. I would like start today’s meeting by welcoming Commissioner Crenshaw to her first open meeting.

Today, we are considering amendments to modernize the description of business, legal proceedings, and risk factor disclosures that companies are required to make under Regulation S-K.  These amendments are part of the Commission’s broader efforts to retroactively review and improve our public company disclosure framework and related requirements.

First, I want to put this work in context.  The rules we adopt today update various Regulation S-K items that essentially have not changed in over 30 years.  Our economy, and the world economy, have changed markedly in that time, and many of our rules, which were well rooted in the characteristics of the economy of the 1970s and 1980s, simply have not kept up.  Here, I note...

Today, the Commission adopted final rules to modernize and add much needed flexibility to the definition of “accredited investor” by adding new categories of qualifying individuals and entities that have demonstrated financial sophistication such that they should not be excluded from the very large, multifaceted and important private capital markets.  The private capital markets are important to investors and issuers of various types, as well as our economy more generally.  The accredited investor definition is the principal test for investor participation in significant segments of our private capital markets.  It also plays an important role in other state and federal securities law contexts. 

The test for individuals to qualify as accredited investors has largely remained unchanged for over 35 years.[1]  This test relies exclusively on a person’s income and net worth.  If you make enough money or have sufficient assets, you are eligible...