Dalbar Warns SEC Proposals Would Benefit Insiders

Not everyone is on board with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan to curb late-trading.

Lou Harvey, president of Dalbar, Inc., said in a report that stopping trades with intermediaries by noon would provide an unfair advantage for insiders, Reuters reports. Harvey said the earlier cutoff times would give insiders four hours to evaluate and capitalize on market changes.

"The cure is more damaging than the disease," he said. Often, the most crucial pieces of financial information, like policy statements and rate changes, are released in the afternoon. The noon cutoff time proposal was designed to stop trades, which can take up to four hours to be completed with the fund company itself, from occurring after 4 p.m.

Morningstar analyst Russel Kinnel disagreed with Harvey, saying that getting mutual funds at the next day’s price is not an important caveat, since they are long-term investments. "So what?" Kinnel said. "If you're investing for 10 years it really doesn't matter."

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