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Securities Exchange Act 1934

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The Securities Exchange Act of 1934

JFM
GM520 - Legal Political & Ethical Dimensions of Business
April, 12 2010

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was passed by congress to strengthen the government’s control of the financial markets. It was preceded by the Securities Exchange Act of 1933 which was enacted during the Great Depression in hopes that the stock market crash of 1929 would not be repeated. The basic difference between the two acts was that the 1933 Act was to govern the original sales of securities by requiring that the issuers, the companies offering the securities, offer up sufficient information about themselves and the securities so that the potential buyers could make informed decisions. The 1934 Act was …show more content…

I find this to be quite an interesting fact. The insiders need to be very careful what they discuss outside of the office.
Violations of section 10(b) can happen due to timing. The textbook discusses how some insiders and tippees involved with a company named Texas Gulf Sulphur, back in 1968, were in violation because they bought stocks too quickly after a press conference announcing the discovery of minerals. They made purchases by telephone faster than the information was disseminated to the public. The SEC found them in violation due to timing only, but that was enough to be considered guilty (Jennings 746). It’s important to keep in mind that this violation would be much less likely to happen today because of the technology surrounding the security exchange. Funny enough, the telephone would probably be considered slower than the internet based transactions that are very common today.
A trend that has recently emerged as a violation of section 10(b) is the use of the internet to engage in pumping and dumping. Although not a new concept, the internet has been used to increase the effect because of its ability to disperse particular company information very quickly in order to affect stock prices. Persons initiating this deceptive behavior can sell their stocks for profit once they see that the changes to price have occurred. This type of behavior is considered fraud since it is a manipulation of

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