Tag: retain

Trading Commissions May Return If the SEC Makes Big Stock-Trading Changes

The Securities and Exchange Commission is aiming to shake up the mechanics of US stock trading in the wake of last year’s meme-stock frenzy, and some experts in the markets say changes could lead to a shift back to retail investors paying commissions to make trades.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler in a speech this week outlined six areas of market structure where rules could be updated to foster greater efficiencies, particularly for retail investors. Gensler is proposing the agency consider sending retail stock orders to auctions under which trading firms would compete to execute the transactions to ensure investors receive the best prices.

Such a move could alter the payment for order flow system, or PFOF, under which brokerage firms including Robinhood, TDAmeritrade, and E-Trade are compensated for sending customers’ orders to market makers rather than sending them directly to an exchange. Among the biggest market makers are Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial. PFOF supports zero-commission trading at online brokers that serve amateur investors.

A significant PFOF change “may reset the entire playing field and cost individual investors more money because we’ll have to go back to some sort of commission model,” Sean Bonner, CEO of Guild Financial, a self-direct investment app that focuses on active and retired members of the military, told Insider. Guild, an early-stage business, doesn’t use the payment for order flow system.

“I can guarantee you that commission model will be much higher than the rebates paying the payment for order flow — much higher, by a factor of 10s to 100s,” said Bonner, who has more than 20 years of experience on Wall Street from floor trading to working as a mutual fund manager. “Retail investors are saving billions of dollars a year on the current payment for order flow model.”

Major wholesalers such as Citadel, Virtu, G1X and Two Sigma provided $6.1 billion in price improvements in 2020 and 2021 combined, said BrokerChooser, based on its analysis. Zero-commission trading in recent years has fueled a boom in activity among individual investors who no longer had to pay their brokers as much as $6.95 for each trade.

Proposed changes to shake up rules in the US stock market was met with criticism from Robinhood’s chief legal officer Dan Gallagher this week. “It is a really good climate for retail, so to go in and muck with it right now, to me, is a little worrisome,” Gallagher said at a conference in New York, according to The Wall Street Journal. Retail traders are benefitting from zero-commission transactions and fast execution of trades, he said.

Following last year’s meme-stock frenzy, Gensler last year asked the SEC to review rules related to equity-market structure, including payment for order flow. PFOF is banned in some countries. Gensler isn’t proposing a ban but such a move would make it “almost inevitable” that retail investors return to a commission-based system, Kerim Derhalli, founder and CEO of investment app Invstr, told Insider.

“I don’t think anyone is going to be willing to provide brokerage services on their own without having some form of revenue associated with it,” he said. The Invstr app has 3 million users worldwide and the company doesn’t use the PFOF system. “If we return to a commission structure then you could argue that might discourage people from trading as frequently as they have been trading. You could, on the other hand, argue that if people start trading less, and investing more, they’ll be better off,” over the long term, he said.

“What would seem to be a simple solution would be [for Gensler] to say, ‘We’re going to make PFOF illegal and … retail trading needs to go through the exchange where it’s transparent and the prices are transparent and people can have confidence in the system,” said Derhalli. Bonner at Guild said overall he sees a ban on PFOF hurting retailer traders. “To be honest, a lot of brokers would hope that they get rid of this payment for order flow model and get back to charging for commissions because there’s a lot more revenue for the brokers in that.”

Gary Gensler is trying to level the playing field for small investors. He’s expected to outline a proposal for new rules to help them – possibly in a speech later today. The idea is to make sure those investors get the best deal when buying or selling stocks. When you make a trade, you may go through a broker. Some are paid to send their orders to wholesalers – who may not give you the best price.

Dennis Kelleher of the investor advocacy group Better Markets said the SEC is thinking about creating auctions. “Which should drive down the cost for retail investors and therefore give them the best price available,” he said. But the plumbing of trading is complicated. And if you divert the flow of buy and sell orders, some small investors could get hurt. Jaret Seiberg with the investment bank Cowen said those deals between brokers and wholesalers paved the way for free trading.

“If you start dismantling the system it’s not clear that you’re going to be able to still provide free access to trading,” he said. Investors advocates said at least with a commission you know what you’re paying upfront. There’s plenty of time for this debate. Any new rules would have to go through a long, public process.

Source: Trading Commissions May Return If the SEC Makes Big Stock-Trading Changes

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Six Tips To Retain Key Employees And Prevent High Turnover Rates

High turnover is a nightmare for HR personnel and the owner of a company. The loss of a valuable employee can be detrimental to growth. Not only can the loss lead to lower productivity, but it can also cost the company financially.

According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, in July 2021, about 4 million people quit their jobs and about 10.9 million positions were declared open. This year, the UK reported an employee deficiency that has had a crippling effect on its economy. In the tech industry, managers have said that the increase in turnover is at an all-time high.

As a business owner, when employee turnover is high, it is time to re-evaluate the business. You first have to determine why your employees are leaving before you know how to stop it. Some of those reasons could be a lack of one or more of the following: flexibility, support, growth, appreciation, vision and engagement.

There are many reasons why your employees could decide to leave your company. Now while one or two employees leaving may seem negligible, a large number of employees, especially important ones, is cause for alarm. Here are a few strategies you can implement to help prevent high turnover rates.

1. Have flexible work options.

One thing many individuals have realized since the pandemic hit is that they can have flexible work hours and still be productive. According to a report by Beqom (download required), over 70% of American workers would take a job with flexible working hours over a higher-paying one. Flexibility does not have to be in the number of hours alone. It may also be start time, vacation days or day-to-day regulations in the organization, among other things.

Most employees do not want to work in a harsh environment where rules are set in stone with no possibility of flexibility whatsoever. Rules in the workplace are important to ensure that everything runs properly; however, when the rules are too rigid, employees can start to feel smothered.

2. Offer your employees support.

Many employees value empathy in their employer and will likely seek out and stick with an employer that cares about their well-being as a person instead of just the value they add to the company. Ask your employees what area of their job they find unnecessarily taxing and how you can make it easier on them; an immediate solution may not be possible but making an effort is the first step. This could also help solve or prevent burnout. And according to a Microsoft report, 54% of employees say they are overworked.

Support employees in learning a new skill for their current role — it would ultimately serve both you and the employee. While it’s almost impossible to solve all the problems of your employees, offering support goes a long way.

3. Help employees reach their career goals.

This is one of the main reasons employees leave. If they feel as though they are not growing in their careers, they could be tempted to look elsewhere. An organization that promotes career-driven goals can help employees achieve those goals to the benefit of everyone involved.

If an employee is steadily growing at an organization and they see a good prospect for them there, they are less likely to move on. Help your employees attain this by creating avenues for growth; this includes networking programs, seminars, mentoring opportunities and so on.

4. Acknowledge and appreciate your employees.

A good way to motivate your employees is to always acknowledge when someone does a great job. Everyone wants to be recognized for their hard work, and if an employee isn’t feeling appreciated, it could cause them to consider leaving your company. Believe it or not, many employees value this more than salary. Appreciate employees when they do a good job in the way that most suits them.

5. Communicate your vision.

No one wants to work at an organization that doesn’t have a clear vision or is left out of the loop. As employees grow, your business must also grow in scope. Have a clear vision for the future of your business, and be committed to communicating it. Feelings of being left in the dark, or low/poor communication in general, can make employees consider leaving. Employees can’t share in your vision if it doesn’t exist or is unclear.

6. Involve your employees.

No matter how good you are at running a business, not seeking your team’s input before making decisions could have devastating effects. When all the decisions are made without the input of employees, the work environment starts to feel like a dictatorship where ideas and input are not welcome. This can lead to employees moving to other companies where they feel like their opinion matters. Involve relevant stakeholders for each decision where it’s appropriate; there’s a balance to strike between stalling all decisions and authoritarian management.

As an HR professional or a business owner, you can help prevent high employee turnover or keep that star employee happy by keeping the above tips in mind. The most important thing is to recognize dissatisfaction in your staff and react in a timely way to offer solutions so they can continue being an active and productive member of your staff.

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Chastity Heyward

Chastity Heyward

Marketing Consultant/Franchise Owner of Sylvan Learning Center of Murrieta, CA. Read Chastity Heyward’s full executive profile here.

Source: Six Tips To Retain Key Employees And Prevent High Turnover Rates

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Nobel Prize Winner Has a Simple Trick to Learn Anything Quickly

The physicist Richard Feynman believed that simplicity was the key to learning. Feynman worked on the Manhattan Project when he was only 20 years old. He went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1965 for his work in quantum electrodynamics, along with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga.

Feynman believed that truth lies in simplicity and that things are easier to learn and retain when they’re simpler. When your knowledge of something is full of complex explanations and terms taken from textbooks, you’re less likely to grasp it.

He’s famously been quoted as saying, “You must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” The goal of learning is to understand the world better. But more often than not, the way we learn doesn’t help us to achieve this.

You end up memorizing something exactly as it’s written in a book or as the teacher explained it to you, so it doesn’t take long for this knowledge to disappear. This is where the Feynman technique comes in.

The idea is to make things simple enough for anyone to understand. In doing this, you can acquire a deep understanding of the topic you’re studying. The Feynman technique has four steps.

1. Choose a topic and start studying it

Feynman’s technique isn’t limited to mathematics or physics. You can apply it to anything.

2. Explain the topic to a child

This step allows you to establish whether you’ve learned what you studied or you just thought you had.Explain the concept in your own words as if you were trying to teach it to a child.

When you try to break things down into simple ideas with plainer vocabulary, you’ll realize whether or not your knowledge of the subject is sufficient. This makes it easy to identify any gaps in your knowledge.

3. Go back to the study material when you get stuck

Only when you can explain the subject in simple terms will you understand it.This means the knowledge will stick with you and not disappear, as it can when you try to memorize something.

Review your notes and study material for anything you still don’t understand.Try to explain it to yourself in an easy way. If it’s too difficult or if you have to use terms from a textbook, then you still haven’t got it.

4. Organize and review

Don’t stop until you can deliver a simple, natural explanation.Go back to steps two and three as many times as you need. It probably won’t take as long as you think.

By: Cristina Fernández Esteban and Nathan Rennolds , Business Insider España

Source: Nobel Prize Winner Has a Simple Trick to Learn Anything Quickly

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