Call it a crude awakening.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that it has obtained the cash to fully reimburse retail investors who suffered losses on a leveraged exchange-traded note tracking crude oil futures.
The SEC found that Cadaret Grant & Co. Inc., President Arthur Grant, and senior vice president Beda Lee Johnson failed to supervise the firm’s registered representatives who recommended that customers buy and hold the VelocityShares Daily 3x Long Crude ETN, formerly known by its ticker UWTI, “without a reasonable basis,” according to a statement from the regulator.
The order found that even as the firm’s brokers were recommending the ETN, which was designed to be a daily trading tool for sophisticated investors and not meant to be held for more than a day, they didn’t understand its inherent risks.