RE: We come back into April, ISA window and WN!!!5 Apr 2021 15:08
Not writing this as an excuse, or defence, and trying not to write a really lengthy set of posts, but...
The FCA, Fund houses, brokers, etc will all have their own internal monitoring systems in place to check for suspicious transactions, price movements vs news, etc as part of their own Market Abuse Regulations which will be audited internally and externally on a regular basis for robustness.
Many different types of monitoring, covering different scenarios, different markets, different tolerances, etc will be set, and any anomolies flagged for further investigation (as quck as same day, or overnight).
Any financial firm outside of the FCA is obliged to report anything suspicious (determined by their own internal parameters, discussions with hierarchy, etc) to the FCA, and the FCA will also contact firms to request background information on anything they themselves deem suspicious.
Noted, that systems will never be perfect and will be on a best efforts basis (like buy/sell indicators), but irregular trading patterns around news events are most definitely monitored and will be flagged for further investigation.
Having said that, whatever tools anyone can out in place, 'where there is a will, there is alwyas a way' to circumvent any checks.
Yes, the FCA is incredibly slow. I have known of instances flagged to them that have taken months to even be acknowledged and further evidence requested for their own internal investigation teams, and the FCA themselves have made initial contact to firms sometimes a year after something suspicious has come up on their own monitoring to request additional information.
You only have to look at the number of instances of cases being brought by the FCA since the new MAR rules to see how effective the rules are though (i.e. nothing significant reported in over 4( years?).
I disagree that they are doing nothing, but they certainly could do more, and as a PI it always seems that the dice are heavily loaded against us.
Finally, of course they will not discuss individual cases, or acknowledge anything is happening. It is not a get out at all. It is to do with tipping off potential criminals that their activity is being monitored, something any FCA employee would be considered guilty of if they were to tell you that they were taking action into anything that had been reported to them (and you would be too for putting it on a public bb).
As I said, not trying to excuse anything, just that it is always very easy to say they do nothing, when that is not the case. Everything can always be better though, but easier said than done in many cases.
Mostly, it is personnel, time and financial constraints that make the regulator seem 'toothless', as the media likes to portray them as. They do mostly get a bad rep for anything bad, but not always warranted, imo.
Anyway, just an alternate view on this. Back to UJO and their prospects...
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