Zecco.com - The Zecco Inside Scoop

Goldman Vax

Jeroen Veth — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Wall Street Gets Swine Flu Vaccine Ahead of YOU! The big banks on Wall Street are at it again. But this time, it's not about your money or front-running your trades - it's about your health. Apparently Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and other behemoth banks have received private shipments of the scarce H1N1 vaccine while high risk groups like pregnant women, young children and people with health problems are unable to find the shot...(read more)

Will the Holiday Season Trick or Treat the Markets?

Jeroen Veth — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:00 GMT

I hope you all had a happy Halloween! I know my son had the time of his life and I had a blast watching him traipse around dressed as superhero Ben Ten HeatBlast. I went to watch his school Halloween parade and I must say it was pretty cute. All the little Kindergarteners marching along dressed up...(read more)

CEO Change at Zecco

Jeroen Veth — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:30:00 GMT

I have some big news to announce. As of January 1st, 2010, I will be handing over Zecco's CEO reins to our current CIO, Michael Raneri. Michael is a world-class manager with 20 years of brokerage experience, as well as the vision and drive to take our brokerage platform to the next level...(read more)

Mo Zecco for Movember

Jeroen Veth — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Movember is just around the corner. No, I didn't misspell that! Here at Zecco we're celebrating the "month formerly known as November" by joining the Movember movement, an online community-based charity event that raises awareness for men's health issues such as testicular and prostate cancer...(read more)

Happy Customer Service Week!

Jeroen Veth — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Huge Thanks to Our Service Team It's Customer Service Week – a nationally recognized holiday celebrating the importance of customer service and customer service professionals. Here at Zecco, we made a strategic decision and investment in 2008 to dramatically improve the service experience we deliver to our customers...(read more)

I'm Down With SEC

Jeroen Veth — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:30:00 GMT

It looks like the SEC is beginning to take a much stronger and more pro-investor stance in the wake of several recent financial scandals. Last Thursday, the agency took two important steps towards protecting David and slaying Goliath. First, they proposed to put an end to flash trading ...(read more)

Gold Rush

Jeroen Veth — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Last week gold rose above $1000 and the financial commentators let out a big "uh-oh." Gold has risen above $1000 a few times recently and each time it's been tied to insecurity in the market and concerns over the dollar. This is because gold is seen as a safe-haven and traders often hedge their exposure to the stock market sending gold soaring...(read more)

Back to School

Jeroen Veth — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:00:00 GMT

The other day I dropped my five-year-old son Max off for his first day of Kindergarten at our local public school. I must say it was a really emotional moment for me. Watching him stand in line, waiting for his teacher to invite him into the classroom — a big, independent kid...(read more)

Bullish on Big Banks

Jeroen Veth — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:53:00 GMT

Bank stocks surged last week led by huge trading volume of four big banks— Fannie Mae , Freddy Mac , Citigroup and Bank of America . In fact, on Tuesday of last week, these four behemoths made up 40% of ALL trading volume on the NYSE! Insane! Especially considering these companies were kryptonite a few months ago and were a big part of dragging down the market...(read more)

The Leveraged ETF Hullaballoo

Jeroen Veth — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:02:00 GMT

There is a groundswell of controversy about Leveraged ETF s and inverse ETFs these days, and for good reason. These products are generally poorly understood by investors and are usually intended to be held for periods of a single trading day. That’s because they tend to deviate substantially from - and underperform relative to - their benchmarks over intermediate and longer periods of time by design ...(read more)

(Un)Happy Birthday to Me

Jeroen Veth — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:23:00 GMT

I turned 40 last week, and to be perfectly honest, it sucks. I'm officially a grown-up. I'm closer to 50 than I am to 20. I'm too old to skateboard. Too old to drive a Porsche. Too old to eat whatever I want and not have it end up around my gut. But I'm the perfect age for a midlife crisis...(read more)

Is TARP Working?

Jeroen Veth — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT

It's been six months since Obama took office and slightly less time since he passed his massive stimulus package . If you'll remember, at the time I was lukewarm on it. Looking back, I believe that Obama and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had their backs against the wall and tried their best with the mess they were handed...(read more)

High Frequency Trading - Wall Street Evil or Just Smart Traders?

Jeroen Veth — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Last week's New York Times article on high frequency trading set off a firestorm that engulfed the financial news networks, the blogosphere and even pulled Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) into the debate who said: "The hallmark of our markets are that they are open and above board and the little guy has as much of a chance as the big guy…This takes a dagger to the heart of that concept...(read more)

High-Inflation or Deflation Spiral: You Choose!

Jeroen Veth — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:00:00 GMT

There's a debate we've been having around the water cooler (or really, the coffee maker) here at Zecco and I wanted to open it up to the community and get your take. Our QA Manager, Marc Arnold, thinks we're heading for an inflationary period. He argues that the Fed has pumped so much money into the economy that there will be too many dollars chasing too few goods...(read more)

Jobs Back on the Job

Jeroen Veth — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:55:00 GMT

I'm sure you've all heard that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is back at work. After a nearly six-month medical leave, he's taking the reigns again. Like few other CEOs, Jobs has had a huge impact on his company's long term performance. Jobs retook the top job at Apple in 1997 and transformed it from a foundering company verging on irrelevant into the huge success it is today...(read more)