Home | Bookmark This Page | Stock Market Forum

Next Investing Topic : Using Divergences to Keep Out of Bad Trades - The American Football season just came to an end with my team getting close to the championship but falling short again. I am a big fan of the Indianapolis Colts and we keep having a groundhog day season year after year but it is still fun to watch. We have one of the better quarterbacks in the league named Peyton Manning who is renowned for his ha...[ read more]







Google
 
Web stockmarketsblog.com


stock market forum

The Conflict of Interest Game


Disgruntled investors are going after Wall Street once again, this time accusing one of investment bank Morgan-Stanley's high-tech mutual funds of making biased stock picks.

Recent lawsuits allege the Morgan Stanley Technology fund was influenced to buy and hold stocks of companies that delivered huge investment banking fees - or could potentially bring big business - to the investment bank.

According to the lawsuits, the Morgan Stanley fund followed the biased recommendations of the firm's analysts - decisions that have cost shareholders millions of dollars since the portfolio's October 2000 inception.

The fund lost 48 percent in 2001 and was down another 50 percent during the first nine months of 2002. While Morgan Stanley strongly denied the allegations, I fail to see how the management of the fund is somehow distinct from the other divisions of Morgan Stanley. Ultimately, they all work for the same boss.

The suits further claim that the tech fund failed to disclose that the firm had investment banking ties with a number of companies whose stocks were part of the portfolio. They also failed to reveal that those links could affect the fund's buy or sell calls.

Why bring all this up? For one thing, it is interesting to note that Morgan Stanley offered four of these types of funds in October 2000. Just around the time when we sold all of our positions (Oct. 13, 2000) and it became clear, at least to those of us who were tracking long-term trends, that a major trend change had taken place.

More recently in the news it's been Merrill Lynch who had a questionable deal involving transactions with failed energy trader Enron. Of course, the financial services industry regulates itself so well, that an $80 million payment to the SEC is sufficient to wrap up this case without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

What's the moral of this story? While it is impossible to predict these alleged conflict of interest schemes, it is definitely possible to follow a disciplined approach and be on the "right" side of the market so you can avoid jumping aboard a sinking ship.

About The Author

Ulli Niemann is an investment advisor and has been writing about objective, methodical approaches to investing for over 10 years. He eluded the bear market of 2000 and has helped hundreds of people make better investment decisions. To find out more about his approach and his FREE Newsletter, please visit: www.successful-investment.com

ulli@successful-investment.com

Related Products For Download:

Read Next :

Using Divergences to Keep Out of Bad Trades


The American Football season just came to an end with my team getting close to the championship but falling short again. I am a big fan of the Indianapolis Colts and we keep having a groundhog day season year after year but it is still fun to watch. We have one of the better quarterbacks in the league named Peyton Manning who is renowned for his ha...

More Articles :
  • Stocks and Mutual Funds
  • Currency Trading
  • Personal Finance
  • Wealth Building
  • Investing
  • Mortgage and Refinance
  • Leases & Leasing
  • Loans
  • Taxes
  • Debt Consolidation
  • Real Estate
  • Small Business
  • Credit
  • Debt Relief
  • Insurance
  • Structured Settlements
  •        

    home | site map
    © 2006-2007 StockMarketsBlog.com