FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2012-66

Washington, D.C., April 16, 2012 ? The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged an online brokerage and clearing agency specializing in options and futures as well as four officials at the firm and a customer involved in an abusive naked short selling scheme.

The SEC?s Division of Enforcement alleges that Chicago-based optionsXpress failed to satisfy its close-out obligations under Regulation SHO by repeatedly engaging in a series of sham ?reset? transactions designed to give the illusion that the firm had purchased securities of like kind and quantity. the firm and customer Jonathan I. Feldman engaged in these sham reset transactions in a number of securities, resulting in continuous failures to deliver. Regulation SHO requires the delivery of equity securities to a registered clearing agency when delivery is due, generally three days after the trade date (T+3). If no delivery is made by that time, the firm must purchase or borrow the securities to close out the failure-to-deliver position by no later than the beginning of regular trading hours on the next day (T+4).

The former chief financial officer at optionsXpress ? Thomas E. Stern of Chicago ? was named in the SEC?s administrative proceeding along with optionsXpress and Feldman. Three other optionsXpress officials ? head of trading and customer service Peter J. Bottini and compliance officers Phillip J. Hoeh and Kevin E. Strine ? were named in a separate administrative proceeding and settled the charges against them for their roles in the scheme.

?OptionsXpress used sham reset transactions to avoid, sometimes for months, its obligation to comply with Reg. SHO?s stock delivery requirements,? said Robert Khuzami, Director of the Division of Enforcement. ?Illegally extending its naked short positions put optionsXpress in plain violation of the law and undermined Reg. SHO?s intent to reduce fails to deliver.?

Daniel M. Hawke, Chief of the Division of Enforcement?s Market Abuse Unit, added, ?Reg. SHO compliance continues to be a high enforcement priority. Broker-dealers, their employees, and their customers must ensure that they comply with the close-out requirements of the short sale rules and regulations.?

According to the SEC?s order, the misconduct occurred from at least October 2008 to March 2010. in September 2011, optionsXpress became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Charles Schwab Corporation.

The SEC?s Enforcement Division alleges that the sham reset transactions impacted the market for the issuers. For example, from Jan. 1, 2010 to Jan. 31, 2010, optionsXpress customers including Feldman accounted for an average of 47.9 percent of the daily trading volume in one of the securities. in 2009 alone, the optionsXpress customer accounts engaging in the activity purchased approximately $5.7 billion worth of securities and sold short approximately $4 billion of options. in 2009, Feldman himself purchased at least $2.9 billion of securities and sold short at least $1.7 billion of options through his account at optionsXpress.

According to the SEC?s order, by engaging in the alleged misconduct, optionsXpress violated Rules 204 and 204T of Regulation SHO; Feldman willfully violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5 and 10b-21 thereunder; optionsXpress and Stern caused and willfully aided and abetted Feldman?s violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act, Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rules 10b-5 and 10b-21 thereunder; and Stern caused and willfully aided and abetted optionsXpress?s violations of Rules 204 and 204T.

In the separate settled administrative proceeding, Bottini, Hoeh, and Strine consented to a cease-and-desist order finding that they caused optionsXpress?s violations of Rules 204 and 204T of Regulation SHO and ordering them to cease-and-desist from committing or causing violations of Rule 204. they neither admitted nor denied the SEC?s findings.

The SEC?s investigation was conducted by Deborah Tarasevich, Jill Henderson, and Paul Kim. Market Surveillance Specialist Brian Shute, Market Abuse Unit Trading Specialist Ainsley Fuhr, and Financial Economist Michael P. Barnes provided assistance with the investigation. the litigation will be led by Frederick Block.

For more information about this enforcement action, contact:

Daniel M. Hawke
Chief, SEC?s Market Abuse Unit and Regional Director, Philadelphia Regional Office
(215) 597-3191

Deborah a. Tarasevich
Assistant Director, Market Abuse Unit, SEC Division of Enforcement
(202) 551-4726

SEC Charges optionsXpress and Five Individuals Involved in Abusive Naked Short Selling Scheme

If you work and earn income, you are probably aware of the Social Security taxes that come out of your paycheck. Social Security Taxes, otherwise known as FICA Tax (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) is paid by employees and employers to fund the Social Security and Medicare programs. Since a fairly large portion of your income goes towards this tax, it is important to understand where it actually goes, and what benefit it may provide to you.

Social Security

The bulk of your FICA Tax money goes into the Social Security program. To be exact, roughly 85 cents of each dollar goes toward Social Security. The money that current wage earners put into the program goes into various trust funds that pay the monthly benefits to current retirees, families, and surviving spouses and children of workers who have died. Costs associated with administering the plan come directly from the trusts.

The administration claims that for each Social Security tax dollar you pay, less than one cent goes toward administration costs.

Medicare

The remainder of the FICA Tax money you pay, roughly 15 cents of each dollar, goes into the Medicare program. Like Social Security, the money paid by current wage earners goes into trust funds that pay for some hospital and medical care costs incurred by current Medicare beneficiaries.

Plan ahead so You Don’t Need to Rely Solely on Social Security

When you take a look at all of the money that you pay into Social Security to hopefully provide for old age retirement benefits and medical coverage, you better hope that you get every penny back and more. well, if you still have some time yet until retirement, it is impossible to know what the future holds for these programs. The best thing you can do is to put some money aside for the future to supplement any benefits that you may receive. one way to do this is to open a Traditional IRA. Not only will you save some money on taxes right now, but you’ll have a nice stash of money to supplement your government benefits.

Where do your Social Security Taxes Go? originally appeared on About.com Financial Planning on Sunday, April 8th, 2012 at 20:13:11.

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Where Do Your Social Security Taxes Go?

The Psy-Fi Blog: Depressed Investors Donâ??t Need Feedback. Everyone Else Does.

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With the debt deal behind us, it’s time to pick up the pieces and ask the question: “What happened?”? as it turns out, very little was accomplished, at least as it pertains to the specifics of future changes.? while most of the hard work has been delayed a short while, certain decisions were made. One clear line in the sand was the carving out of Social Security from any automatic reduction in spending. (The same cannot be said for Medicare).? still, as I discuss in Should your Retirement Planning Change Due to the New Debt Deal? you can expect major changes in the near term to Social Security.

The New Debt Deal and Social Security ? Should your Retirement Planning Change Due to the New Debt Deal? originally appeared on About.com Retirement Planning on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 13:00:34.

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The New Debt Deal and Social Security ? Should Your Retirement Planning Change Due to the New Debt Deal?

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<a href="http://www.fa-mag.com/fa-news/10951-women-face-different-economic-retirement-realities-.htmltag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.fa-mag.com/fa-news/10951-women-face-different-economic-retirement-realities-.htmlMon, 14 May 2012 15:00:23 GMT”>Women Lag Men In Retirement Savings

How can you beat the odds if you want to join the boomerpreneur boom and start your own company after 50? MONEY put that question to small-business experts and dozens of fiftysomething entrepreneurs for their best advice.

Starting a company from scratch