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Concerned about how to generate-and preserve-above-market returns, fund companies are now arming their portfolio managers and trading desk combatants with a new tool to boost performance.

Social networking? Everyone's doing it. Particularly your next generation of fund customers. You will want to reach them, as they walk and talk through the Internet.

http://markets.securitiesindustry.com/sourcemedia.securitiesindustry/news/read?GUID=14303393CME Continues to Prohibit EFF Transactions, Despite CFTC LetterThe CME Group said Monday morning that it would continue to prohibit buying and selling of Exchange for Futures contracts on its Chicago Board of Trade options and futures exchange.The announcement followed Friday's receipt by CME of a letter from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that such transactions are "not prohibited" by either the Commodity Exchange Act or the commission.At the same time, however, the commission said that such transactions, championed by the Electronic Liquidity Exchange, "are neither prohibited nor mandated" by any core principle of commodity trading, as regulated by the CFTC."Thus, ELX’s EFFs are not prohibited by the CEA or Commission regulations,'' said the CFTC, in its letter to CME, owner of CBOT.In response, however, the CME said the "letter does not change CBOT rules, which clearly prohibit Exchange of Futures for Futures transactions (EFFs). As permitted by the Commodity Exchange Act, CBOT will continue to prohibit EFFs, which would reduce transparency and price discovery in CBOT Treasury In Exchange of Futures for Futures transactions, two different contract markets essentially swap Treasury futures from one clearinghouse to another.The CME, which also operates CME Clearing for exchange-traded contracts and CME Clearport for over-the counter derivatives, considers the exchanges of contracts to be akin to "wash sales," where a security is sold at a loss to get a tax break and then repurchased in the hope it will regain its value.In January, the ELX, which is backed by several large financial institutions, sent a letter requested the CFTC to “act promptly to effectuate its approval of the EFF rule by requiring the CBOT to permit the execution of EFFs between ELX and CBOT and prohibiting the CBOT or CME Group from threatening or bringing enforcement action in connection with the execution of EFPs.”http://www.futuresmag.com/Issues/2010/February-2010/Pages/ELX-vs-CME-Group-EFF-battle-continues.aspxhttp://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr5872-10.htmlELX Futures is a fully regulated electronic futures exchange launched on July 10, 2009. founding firms include Bank of America, Barclays Capital, BGC Partners, Breakwater, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities, GETCO, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, PEAK6 and The Royal Bank of Scotland.ELX Futures allows for market arbitrage, outright and spread execution and cash/futures basis trading through multiple front ends and "an ultra fast matching engine. "http://www.elxfutures.com/About-ELX/Our-Company.aspxhttp://www.futuresmag.com/Issues/2010/February-2010/Pages/ELX-vs-CME-Group-EFF-battle-continues.aspxIn January, the commission found CBOT's arguments that these trades were unlawful to be "unpersuasive."http://www.elxfutures.com/getdoc/41214997-3f65-4a58-ad8a-88efd5cfa5a8/CFTC-Letter-to-CBOT-Re-Rules-and-Interpretatio-(1).aspxThe CME Group said Monday morning that it would continue to prohibit buying and selling of Exchange for Futures contracts on its Chicago Board of Trade options and futures exchange.

Hampered by less activity and investor wariness, Charles Schwab Corp. announced Friday that its trading volume fell in July from a year earlier.

WASHINGTON — Martin Kanefsky, the former owner and chief executive officer of a Great Neck, N.Y.-based firm that helped municipal issuers secure guaranteed investment contracts for their bond proceeds, pleaded guilty to participating in two separate fraud conspiracies and wire fraud, the Justice Department announced Thursday night.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow the use of "flash orders" in options markets.

Vanguard has dropped AXA Rosenberg Group as a sub-advisor of the Vanguard Explorer, Vanguard U.S. Value and Vangaurd Market Neutral funds, replacing the oversight with its own Quantitative Equity Group, Vanguard said Thursday.

Exchange-traded fund investors shook off the summer slump and put their money back to work in July. Industry assets rose 6.5% in July as investors found investment opportunities overseas and also favored funds with large-cap investment styles.

The head of the BlackRock product team for exchange-traded funds in the United States urged the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to establish circuit breakers across all exchanges that were uniform for both stocks and ETFs.

WASHINGTON — Though the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform law designed separate rules for large and small institutions, covering everything from capital to stress tests to consumer protection, a consensus is growing that the higher standards for bigger institutions will eventually apply to everyone else.

Merrill Lynch agreed Wednesday to pay $728,260 in civil penalties for allowing unregistered client associates to sell securities in states where they were not permitted to do business, said New Jersey’s Attorney General Paula Dow. Client associates serve as sales assistant to one or more financial advisors.

Three out of every four adults age 18 or older are factoring in Social Security income when planning ahead for their retirement, according to a survey released Wednesday by AARP. Even among younger people aged 18 to 29, 62% expect to rely on Social Security.

A few years ago, a client of Wells Fargo & Co.'s private bank unexpectedly lost his spouse of 50 years.

Scout Investment Advisors Inc., a division of UMB, announced Wednesday that it hired Andrew Iseman as its chief executive officer.

September 10 - Live Broadcast Web Seminar: ETF Administration - Sponsored by BNY Mellon and Citi - Register Now

A Flash Crash that can send the overall average of blue chip stocks down 1,000 points in 10 minutes and where individual stocks can lose more than 90% of their value in 10 seconds remains a looming risk to capital markets, according to the chief financial officer of Accenture [ACN], the large global consulting firm.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at such mechanisms as price collars and limits on upward or downward movements in a stock in a single day, in the wake of the May 6 Flash Crash.

An overreliance on computer systems and high-frequency trading are seen by financial advisors as the primary drivers of the sharpest single-day point decline in Dow Jones history, according to a survey commissioned by the iShares Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business, conducted by Market Strategies International and released by BlackRock, the investment advisory firm.

September 10 - Live Broadcast Web Seminar: ETF Administration - Sponsored by BNY Mellon and Citi - Register Now

A supplier of risk management software to bulge bracket firms on Wall Street has proposed that the Securities and Exchange Commission rely on real-time data stored in a nationwide cloud of computing power and networks to create an effective audit trail of stock market activity.