4 ms·

> Nearly one in four top FTC officials owned or traded individual stocks of tech companies While I agree a broad based fund will have allocations of these stoc

> Nearly one in four top FTC officials owned or traded individual stocks of tech companies While I agree a broad based fund will have allocations of these stocks and should be okay for them to own, but what are they doing owning individual stocks?

seanmcdirmid 4y ago
Micro managing their portfolios? I can also imagine a lot of them getting in on IPOs or later offerings before becoming FTC officials and not clearing those stocks out of their portfolio. But $15k...isn't a lot.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  $15k is ~1 months salary for a senior bureaucrat (GS scale) in DC metro. How many months income does it take to corrupt somebody? $15k into each FAANG is $75k, double the national median income. It all adds up a sizable potential conflict. This is roughly the same debate as Congress, just on a smaller scale. What is the balance between reasonable individual financial management and ensuring conflicts don't exist?
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    > $15k is ~1 months salary for a senior bureaucrat (GS scale) in DC metro. That isn't income, profit, or gains, but just the actual amount of stock they can hold/trade at some time. Let's say they had inside information, $15k doesn't allow for much leverage to take advantage of that information. > How many months income does it take to corrupt somebody? Probably a heck of a lot more than you could earn on trading just $15k of stock.
    - alistairSH 4y ago
      Yeah, I suppose the real question is how active is their trading? And are systems in place to catch them if they do appear to trade on insider info? This is one of those situations where the possibility/impression of special access to gains is probably worse than any actual gains being made. And it's certainly a much smaller scale than what we saw with Congress ($10s of millions in some cases).
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> what are they doing owning individual stocks? Many advisors invest based on an index (or modified index) but hold shares in clients' accounts directly.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  Yep, the strategy is called direct indexing and tax-loss harvesting is the reason to do it. Gotta be careful doing it - fees can quickly eat up any upside. Some of the robo-investing platforms offer this strategy, though I haven’t looked deeply into it.

seanmcdirmid 4y ago

Micro managing their portfolios? I can also imagine a lot of them getting in on IPOs or later offerings before becoming FTC officials and not clearing those stocks out of their portfolio. But $15k...isn't a lot.

alistairSH 4y ago
$15k is ~1 months salary for a senior bureaucrat (GS scale) in DC metro. How many months income does it take to corrupt somebody? $15k into each FAANG is $75k, double the national median income. It all adds up a sizable potential conflict. This is roughly the same debate as Congress, just on a smaller scale. What is the balance between reasonable individual financial management and ensuring conflicts don't exist?
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  > $15k is ~1 months salary for a senior bureaucrat (GS scale) in DC metro. That isn't income, profit, or gains, but just the actual amount of stock they can hold/trade at some time. Let's say they had inside information, $15k doesn't allow for much leverage to take advantage of that information. > How many months income does it take to corrupt somebody? Probably a heck of a lot more than you could earn on trading just $15k of stock.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    Yeah, I suppose the real question is how active is their trading? And are systems in place to catch them if they do appear to trade on insider info? This is one of those situations where the possibility/impression of special access to gains is probably worse than any actual gains being made. And it's certainly a much smaller scale than what we saw with Congress ($10s of millions in some cases).

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> what are they doing owning individual stocks? Many advisors invest based on an index (or modified index) but hold shares in clients' accounts directly.

alistairSH 4y ago
Yep, the strategy is called direct indexing and tax-loss harvesting is the reason to do it. Gotta be careful doing it - fees can quickly eat up any upside. Some of the robo-investing platforms offer this strategy, though I haven’t looked deeply into it.