Market News Daily – Virtu Co-President Has Sold Big 57% Stake in Company.
Virtu Financial Inc., (NASDAQ:VIRT) Co-President and Co-COO Brett Fairclough has sold a big 57% stake in the company.
VIRT stock is down more than -18% this year-to-date and more than -15% in the past trading week.
Brett Fairclough netted about $970k selling shares at an average price of $19.39; the stock is currently trading around $16.
In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Executive VP of Markets & Global Head of Execution Services, Stephen Cavoli, sold $2.6m worth of shares at a price of $29.52 per share.
“While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price,” says SimplyWallSt.
Analysts are beginning to take caution with Virtu stock as insider selling has dominated purchasing of the stock.
“Our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn’t bring confidence, either.
Insider ownership isn’t particularly high, so this analysis makes us cautious about the company. We’d practice some caution before buying!”
The latest data shows Virtu Financial insiders sold more than they bought over the last year.
Latest Virtu Financial News
Market maker Virtu is currently facing new enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
(WSJ) The firm disclosed last week that it is facing a potential enforcement lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Virtu disclosed in a quarterly filing after Friday’s closing bell that it had engaged in settlement discussions with the SEC about an investigation related to “information barriers policies and procedures” between January 2018 and April 2019.
The company first disclosed the probe in February. Its updated disclosure suggested that the SEC could be moving forward with a lawsuit.
Virtu said it “currently believes it may receive a Wells notice from the SEC,” referring to a type of letter that the agency’s staffers send to companies or individuals to inform them of a possible enforcement action.
A Virtu spokesman said the investigation was “primarily focused on an access controls weakness in one of our internal back office systems containing post trade information that theoretically could allow certain system users access greater than what was intended by our policies.”
“We have no reason to believe and have found no evidence that anyone ever made any improper use of any client information”, said Virtu.
Market News Published Daily
Market News Today – Virtu Co-President Has Sold Big 57% Stake in Company.
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Market News Daily – Virtu Faces New Enforcement Action by the SEC.
Market maker Virtu is currently facing new enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
(WSJ) The firm disclosed last week that it is facing a potential enforcement lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Virtu disclosed in a quarterly filing after Friday’s closing bell that it had engaged in settlement discussions with the SEC about an investigation related to “information barriers policies and procedures” between January 2018 and April 2019.
The company first disclosed the probe in February. Its updated disclosure suggested that the SEC could be moving forward with a lawsuit.
Virtu said it “currently believes it may receive a Wells notice from the SEC,” referring to a type of letter that the agency’s staffers send to companies or individuals to inform them of a possible enforcement action.
A Virtu spokesman said the investigation was “primarily focused on an access controls weakness in one of our internal back office systems containing post trade information that theoretically could allow certain system users access greater than what was intended by our policies.”
“We have no reason to believe and have found no evidence that anyone ever made any improper use of any client information”, said Virtu.
SEC Fines Virtu for Abusing Dark Pools
In 2019, the SEC announced that Virtu Americas LLC (f/k/a KCG Americas LLC) agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle charges for failing to comply with Regulation SCI.
According to the SEC’s order, KCG Americas operated an alternative trading system, or ATS, commonly referred to as a “dark pool.”
An ATS that exceeds certain trading volume thresholds is required to comply with Regulation SCI.
The SEC order finds that KCG Americas implemented an automated system that was intended to keep its dark pool’s trading volume below the volume thresholds by discontinuing trading in particular securities before the thresholds were met.
KCG Americas relied on this system for more than a year and half.
However, according to the SEC’s order, the system did not function as intended, causing trading to exceed the thresholds that triggered the need to comply with Regulation SCI.
The SEC’s order finds that Virtu willfully violated the policy and procedure.
Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Virtu consented to the entry of a cease and desist order and agreed to be censured and to pay a penalty $1.5 million.
Market News Published Daily
Market News Today – Virtu Faces New Enforcement Action by the SEC.
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Market News: Biotech Company sues Citadel for market manipulation.
Biotech company Northwest Biotherapeutics is suing Citadel and other market makers for allegedly manipulating its stock price.
The company is accusing Citadel Securities LLC, Susquehanna, Virtu, and other Wall Street firms of driving its stock price down through the use of various illicit trading activities.
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
Northwest Biotherapeutics alleged the market makers had repeatedly engaged in “spoofing,“ where traders place orders with an intent to fool other investors about a stock’s demand and manipulate the price.
Northwest, whose shares trade over the counter, also sued Canaccord Genuity Inc., G1 Execution Services LLC, GTS Securities LLC, Instinet LLC, Lime Trading Corp. and Virtu Americas LLC.
Virtu Financial Inc is suing the SEC, alleging on Tuesday its primary regulator had not responded to a public records request.
Virtu, a market maker with a large equities business, said it submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in June to determine if the SEC had met legal requirements to evaluate potential investor harm and market risks while considering new rules for the handling and execution of retail stock orders.
The SEC declined to comment.
The FOIA request sought, among other things, communications between SEC Chair Gary Gensler and various stakeholders involved in retail stock trading.
“What we’re doing is exercising our rights as citizens … to understand what this Chair is looking at and who he’s meeting with,” Virtu Chief Executive Doug Cifu told Reuters.
“We think it’s important that there be clarity and transparency — that’s what the SEC requires of us as a listed company, so we’re just taking that same standard and saying, be transparent in how you’re dealing with potentially seismic changes to equity market structure,” he added.
Cifu has said Virtu may sue the SEC over other potential rule changes Gensler outlined in June.
What Does the Market Maker Fear?
Virtu SEC Lawsuit Update.
The industry has attacked the SEC as several plans to level the playing field for retail investors have been proposed, one being the ban of PFOF (payment for order flow).
Now it seems market makers such as Virtu want to know ahead of time what the SEC is up to in order to act now.
Virtu suing the SEC speaks volumes since majority of retail investors have doubted the SEC has true power to create any change in the market.
I’m curious to know what you think.
Leave your thoughts in the comment section down below.
What can be done in order to avoid the collapse of an entire system?
The SEC has taken a stance against high frequency trading and is currently supporting the D-Limit order from IEX.
It’s time for retail investors to speak up and let our government leaders know our needs in the market.
Welcome to Franknez.com – the blog that fights for retail investors and for a fair market. Today’s topic is extremely important so let’s dive right into it.
Let’s get started!
System of Checks and Balances
In the United States, the system of checks and balances provides each branch of government with individual powers to check the other branches and prevent one branch from becoming too powerful.
However, there seems to be a massive concentration of power between market makers Citadel and Virtu in the finance world.
These two market makers are responsible for processing majority of retail investor orders.
This creates massive systemic risks since there is so much power concentrated just within these two key players.
Should one or both fail, the entire system could collapse.
This almost happened in January during the ‘meme stock’ rallies.
Citadel claims they were the only market maker processing orders from Robinhood and this is a big problem.
There needs to be a separation of power.
It’s extremely important that retail investors voice their needs from government leaders regarding this matter.
PFOF Takes More Than It Gives
Citadel, Virtu, and Robinhood continue to stand by payment for order flow.
The issue with PFOF is that it takes more than it actually gives.
Market makers argue that it saves retail investors billions of dollars annually but fail to mention that they also make money from retail through high frequency trading.
In this documentary you will find Citadel makes their money shorting stock.
The Story of Citadel
Retail investors don’t want their orders processed by a company that is a market maker, hedge fund, and dark pool all at the same time.
Not only is Citadel profiting from retail money through high frequency trading, but they are also shorting the stock retail investors are buying through various means.
Dark pool trading and naked short selling are some other ways we’ve seen hedge funds suppress the rise of a stocks share price.
More so in ‘meme stocks’ such as GameStop and AMC, which are heavily shorted.
But there’s another issue that has yet to be addressed and that is OTC, or what’s also known as off-exchange trading.
The Rise of Off-Exchange Trading
Over-the-counter (OTC), or off-exchange trading is when trading occurs between two parties instead of through an exchange, such as the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange).
Market makers essentially negotiate with one another through dealer quotation services such as FINRA’s OTC Bulletin Board.
Yes, that is the same FINRA that is supposed to be protecting retail investors and safeguarding market integrity.
Off exchange trading is not as regulated as the NYSE nor does it require prices to be publicly disclosed.
Market makers can short a stock in these off exchange trading platforms and also create a ‘perfect hedge’, allowing them to offset or eliminate all risk on their position(s).
Retail investors go long on stocks.
So when market makers such as Citadel and Virtu are using tools to make money from shorting stocks, retail investors are at a massive disadvantage.
Market Makers Are a Threat to Our Economy
Market makers pose a serious risk to our economy and the businesses that provide massive value to our society.
As long as this concentration of power isn’t broken, the United States economy will always face systemic risk.
And when the entire country is economically on its knees, financial institutions who shorted on the way down will be the only ones compensated for it.
This is when integrity is buried by greed.
So what’s going to be done about it?
Our community now has a voice.
We must continue to fight against market corruption, and we must fight for a fair market.
Only then will we be able to mitigate systemic risk and make a positive impact in our economy.
Retail Investors Can Grow Our Economy
With more people now learning about the markets more than ever, this could greatly benefit our economy.
Not only does the average person get to invest in the stock market, but we get to support the ideas and innovations of the companies in our country.
People don’t need to make a lot of money to invest.
But fair investing could improve the quality of life for millions of people.
The average person could provide more for their family, the government would collect capital gain taxes, and our businesses would excel much more rapidly.
Our government must look at solutions for economic prosperity and growth.
Market makers such as Citadel and Virtu suppress economic growth for their selfish gain.
They do not contribute to society.
This is why we’re seeing a power like China catch up to the United States with such an intense and exponential growth.
They’ve eliminated a lot of the issues in their markets that we have in ours today.
Institutional investors play a dominant role in the U.S markets, while Chinese markets are dominated by retail investors.
