Securities and Exchange Commission Zeal

Investors do expect federal and state regulatory agencies will help thwart any Ponzi-like chicanery. Unfortunately, many of these deceptions are never caught in time by the authorities.

What the Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, seems to be excellent at, is the ability to impose nit-picking regulations that require the costly issuance of theatrical data which most investors cannot possibly comprehend or use in a practical sense. That fuzzy data generally comes in the mail and winds up, unread, in the garbage.

Let’s now turn our attention to what investors really want, apart from justice when any criminality exists; they want a level playing field when they put their funds at risk.

There is a practical way for all investors to get that sought-for level playing field. And without the worry that someone has vital securities information they are unable to get.

It’s simple enough, without the impossible attempt to determine who is whispering to whom at whose cocktail parties.

All investors can get a practical form of level playing field when they avoid the adverse impact of those I often refer to as the financial industry’s “inside players.”

These players usually operate legally and include stock brokers who push over-zealous traders trying to outfox each other; advisers with “tiny” management fees that translate into as much as 20% or more of their earnings each year; hedge funds that think nothing of taking an additional 20% of any annual earnings profits on top of fees; and analysts who suggest securities of corporations they diligently evaluate, though they could not run their own profitable pushcart.

All these costs that uneven the playing field are charged without any commensurate service.

When research shows that low-cost index mutual funds and ETFs are invariably the alternative bargains to the wares of the inside-players. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)