Mad off

As a fund manager, its been hard for me not to weigh in on the Madoff scandle, but as a human, I find it hard not to. Option collars are a very simple (to the savvy) way to control losses and moderate gains. Berrnie Madoff was a very bight man, in fact he was once the chairman of NASDAQ, but why isn't he in jail?

Bernie Madoff's investment fund may never have executed a single trade, industry officials say, suggesting detailed statements mailed to investors each month may have been an elaborate mirage in a $50 billion fraud.

An industry-run regulator for brokerage firms said on Thursday there was no record of Madoff's investment fund placing trades through his brokerage operation.

That means Madoff either placed trades through other brokerage firms, a move industry officials consider unlikely, or he was not executing trades at all.

"Our exams showed no evidence of trading on behalf of the investment advisor, no evidence of any customer statements being generated by the broker-dealer," said Herb Perone, spokesman for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

What perplexes me is that I can not get a non-solicitation past FINRA, but they missed this? The key to this scam was verticle integration. Madoff was a market maker, and he controlled the accountants, the brokers, the compliance department, and even the exchange. This is asad day for roberbarrons; it looks lik ethey are all theives.