Views on improving the integrity of global capital markets
01 December 2017

Ethics in Practice: Personal vs. On-the-Job Investments. Case for Week of 27 Nov

CFA Institute Ethical Decision-Making Framework

Analysis is now posted below! You are getting stronger!

Keep practicing your ethical decision-making skills with a new case.

Case

Yang is a research analyst at BAMCO, a registered broker/dealer and investment adviser. While employed with BAMCO, Yang established Prestige Trade Investments Limited and acts as that firm’s investment adviser. Yang is responsible for formulating Prestige’s investment strategy and directs all trades on behalf of Prestige. Over the course of several days, Yang purchases 50,000 shares of Zhongpin stock and 1,978 Zhongpin call options for his personal account at BAMCO. Shortly thereafter, Yang uses $29.8 million of Prestige’s funds to purchase more than 3 million shares of Zhongpin stock. Yang’s actions are

  1. acceptable because Yang’s personal investments are not in conflict with the investment advice being given to his clients at Prestige.
  2. acceptable as long as BAMCO is aware of and consents to Yang establishing and working for Prestige as a separate entity.
  3. acceptable as long as Prestige clients are not negatively affected by Yang’s prior purchase of Zhongpin securities through his account at BAMCO.
  4. unacceptable.

Analysis

This case involves an investment adviser “front-running” client trades. Front-running involves trading for one’s personal account before trading for client accounts. In this case, Yang purchased Zhongpin stock and call options in his personal account at BAMCO before directing the Zhongpin trades of clients at Prestige. Standard VI(B): Priority of Transactions states that “investment transactions for clients…must have priority over investment transactions in which a [CFA Institute] member…is the beneficial owner.” Yang’s personal investments are tracking with his client investments so there is no conflict between his personal trading and the investment actions/advice for clients. But the timing of the trades is what is at issue in this case, making answer A incorrect. Also, the fact that Prestige clients are not harmed by Yang’s earlier trades for his personnel accounts does not make his actions acceptable. The issue is Yang’s personal benefit derived from trading before his clients, which makes Answer C incorrect. Disclosure is not a cure for front-running. So, even if Yang had told Prestige clients that he would be making personal trades prior to taking investment action on their behalf that would benefit him, the trading in his personal account would not be acceptable. Yang would have to get permission from BAMCO to create and work for Prestige, according to CFA Institute Standard IV(A): Loyalty, but such permission does not allow Yang to engage in unethical activity while at Prestige, making Answer B incorrect. That leaves Answer D as the best answer. This case is based on a SEC enforcement action from 2014.

Have an idea for a case for us to feature? Send it to us at [email protected].

More About the Ethics in Practice Series

Just as you need to practice to become proficient at playing a musical instrument, public speaking, or playing a sport, practicing assessing and analyzing situations and making ethical decisions develops your ethical decision-making skills. To promote “ethical exercise,” we are excited to introduce Ethics in Practice.

Each week, we post a short vignette, drawn from real-world circumstances, regulatory cases, and CFA Institute Professional Conduct investigations, along with possible responses/actions. We then encourage you to assess the case through the lens of the Ethical Decision-Making Framework and the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct and let us know which of the choices you believe is the right thing to do and why. If you are not a CFA Institute member, you can post your choice and reasoning in the comments section below. For CFA Institute members, we would like you to join the conversation in our new Member App and post your responses there. Later in the week, we will post an analysis of the case and you can see how your response compares.

CFA Institute Member App

The Member App gives CFA Institute members access to a content from multiple CFA Institute publications, including these weekly Ethics in Practice posts. Best of all, the app allows in-app submission of Continuing Education credits, which members can earn by reading and participating in the conversation for each case. (0.25 CE, 0.25 SER). The app is available in the Apple and Google Play stores. After downloading, simply log in using your CFA Institute website credentials (e.g., [email protected] + password). Hint: Save the post to your library in the app to find it easily.

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Image Credit: ©CFA Institute

About the Author(s)
Jon Stokes

Jon Stokes is the director of Professional Standards at CFA Institute. His responsibilities include developing, maintaining, and providing interpretation on the organization’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, Asset Manager Code of Professional Conduct, and other ethics codes and standards. He has designed and created on-line ethics education programs for CFA Institute, including the CFA Institute Ethical Decision-Making and Giving Voice to Values education programs. Stokes has led numerous in-person and online ethics trainings for members, societies, and investment professionals and contributes to the ethics curriculum at all three levels of the CFA Program. He holds a JD degree.

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