Investor Alerts and Bulletins

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Office of Customer Education and Outreach (OCEO), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) are issuing this Investor Alert to warn investors about relationship investment scams.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) urges investors to weigh carefully the potential risks and benefits if considering any investment product that provides exposure to the price of bitcoin or ether. Investors should understand that bitcoin and ether are highly speculative investments. This includes when exposure is gained through an exchange-traded product (ETP). Investors should consider the volatility of the price of bitcoin and ether.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) wants to educate investors about investing in SPACs. You may have heard the term SPAC recently referred to in the financial or other news.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) is issuing this Investor Bulletin to inform investors about how they may be able to recover money if they have been harmed by a violation of the federal securities laws.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this updated Investor Alert to warn investors about investment scams that purport to offer investors the opportunity to buy pre-IPO shares of companies, including social media and technology companies such as Facebook and Twitter. SEC staff is aware of a number of complaints and inquiries about these types of frauds, which may be promoted on social media and internet sites, by telephone, email, in person, or by other means.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Alert because fraudsters continue to exploit the popularity of crypto assets to lure retail investors into scams. Crypto assets may include assets commonly referred to as cryptocurrencies, crypto, coins, and tokens.

From time to time, the SEC seeks comment from the public on a number of matters, including on the SEC’s rulemakings. The Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to help explain the rulemaking process and to help promote greater individual investor input in Commission rulemaking proceedings.

On February 15, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rule amendments to shorten the standard settlement cycle for most broker-dealer transactions from “T+2” to “T+1,” subject to certain exceptions.  The compliance date for the rule amendments is May 28, 2024, at which point the standard settlement cycle will be T+1.  The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) is issuing this Investor Bulletin to explain the new “T+1” settlement cycle and how it will affect certain transactions you place with your brokerage firm.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Alert to warn investors about potential investment schemes in which fraudsters send fake Forms 4 to investors who paid for the purported purchase of shares.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Alert to help law enforcement professionals and others identify if an older investor has been a victim of investment fraud, and to explain how to report it to appropriate authorities. First, identify whether there may be investment fraud. Here are some tell-tale signs: