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interest alone (about $8 million a year) would have more than funded the legal fees until the year 3000. No member of the jury would have identified with the industry. The investors' attorneys would have earned their fees because the industry would have run them a merry chase through hills of paper and mountains of denial until the jury made justice with its ultimate verdict against the market makers and had assessed huge punitive damages for the manner in which the market makers treated the investing public. The settlement only looks bad for the market makers' current earnings report cards and current balance sheet. |
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Another real issue is the impact the settlement will have on investor confidence and on the Nasdaq market. Many market makers have been cutting back to adjust for falling profits. Merrill has already slashed the number of stocks in which it made a market from 850 to 450 and cut nine traders from its overhead. |
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The settlement confirmed everything I had been preaching. The average investor who completes and files onerous proof-of-loss forms with supporting documentation will be lucky if he or she nets enough for a Value Meal at McDonald's. |
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When the market makers settled the civil class actions for over a billion dollars, the story was reported in the last section of the Wall Street Journal and decently buried away where only the most interested of readers could find it. And it was released on Christmas Eve to be reported on the Friday after Christmas when anyone who counted was already on holiday. |
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Nasdaq Price Rigging Appears To Continue |
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One recent study has indicated that the market-maker conspiracy to fix prices has continued. I am beginning to believe that the market makers are slow to learn from their past mistakes. According to a study released by the Electronic Traders Association (ETA), Nasdaq market makers have continued |
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