Blogs

T he unfortunate outbreak of the coronavirus has upended the usual ways of doing business.  Simply put, in a matter of a few weeks the global economy practically came to a screeching halt as companies reigned back travel, associations canceled gatherings, employers closed their offices and required their employees to telecommute, and public officials enacted extreme policy measures to protect their citizens from the spread of the COVID-19 disease.  As many of you are aware, live events and conferences have been a major pillar for programming at the CFA Society Boston, yet we recently decided to suspend all our events through the end of April.  Just ...

O n Monday, February 10, CFA Society Boston hosted its Annual Market Dinner featuring guest speaker David Wasserman, House Editor for The Cook Political Report.  Over 500 financial professionals attended the evening to network and hear insights from one of the nation’s top political pundits on the eve of the 2020 New Hampshire primary. The 2020 U.S. presidential election may prove to be a pivotal one for financial markets.  “We aren’t a political organization, we are a professional organization, but our investment industry, and in fact the very health of this country’s economy, and perhaps even the global economy may just lay in the balance,” ...

Image by Martin Winkler from Pixabay “[Members and candidates] must maintain and improve their professional competencies and strive to maintain and improve the competence of other investment professionals.”  - CFA Institute Code of Ethics   C ompetency and continuous learning are among the core qualities embodied within the community of CFA charterholders. Each year, member charterholders attest to following the CFA Institute’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct (“Code and Standards”), which includes the requirement to “maintain and improve their professional competencies.” One cannot stay at pace—let alone excel—in ...

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixaba In 2017, when TD Ameritrade was nearing the completion of its acquisition of rival Scottrade, I came across a very enticing yet not-so-widely advertised promotion through Charles Schwab for existing Scottrade clients that seemed too good to pass up.  What was the offer?  If I agreed to transfer over my Scottrade accounts, Schwab would give me commission-free trading for as long as I was a Scottrade client.  And since I had started investing with Scottrade in 2004, that offer meant I could trade for free with Schwab until the year 2030! What seemed like a sweetheart deal at the time has now transitioned to ...

The CFA Institute recently published a position paper that reviews the conflicts between U.S. and European rules on research payments post-MiFID II implementation and highlights the challenges that investment managers face in attempting to comply with the two regions simultaneously.  The paper—which was produced in partnership with the Healthy Markets Association and Council of Institutional Investors—summarizes its findings with recommendations to the SEC for dealing with these regulatory disparities.      By way of background, Section 28(e), as amended in 1975, of The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 permits investment advisors to pay higher commissions ...