By Jilian Mincer Thu May 24, 2012 7:27pm EDT NEW YORK May 24 (Reuters) - It's been less than a week since Facebook went public, and while the IPO made CEO Mark Zuckerberg and many others very wealthy, the botched way in which the offering was done has sparked investigations, lawsuits and regulatory threats. It has also sparked a lot of anger toward the social media company, lead underwriter Morgan Stanley and the Nasdaq stock market. Here is a list of eight things that went wrong with the Facebook IPO - a "what not to do list" for the next big technology company considering a public listing, compiled from interviews with investors, traders, analysts, attorneys and regulators.1. Charge too much. Facebook raised the price of ... Continue reading →

By Jessica Toonkel and Tim McLaughlin BOSTON | Thu May 24, 2012 12:03pm EDT BOSTON (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments said it was working with "thousands" of brokerage clients affected by trading issues that have engulfed Facebook Inc's much-anticipated initial public offering, according to a source familiar with the situation. The social media site's IPO has been steeped in controversy since it started trading last Friday.Almost a week later, many investors have found that their orders for Facebook were not executed at the prices they thought, said advisers, who declined to be identified because they are not allowed to speak to the press.All Facebook stock trades in clients' accounts from May 18 have been confirmed, a Fidelity spokesman said."On behalf of our customers, Fidelity's senior management ... Continue reading →

By Jessica Toonkel and Tim McLaughlin BOSTON | Thu May 24, 2012 12:03pm EDT BOSTON (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments said it was working with "thousands" of brokerage clients affected by trading issues that have engulfed Facebook Inc's much-anticipated initial public offering, according to a source familiar with the situation. The social media site's IPO has been steeped in controversy since it started trading last Friday.Almost a week later, many investors have found that their orders for Facebook were not executed at the prices they thought, said advisers, who declined to be identified because they are not allowed to speak to the press.All Facebook stock trades in clients' accounts from May 18 have been confirmed, a Fidelity spokesman said."On behalf of our customers, Fidelity's senior management ... Continue reading →

And who could blame them? Joshua M Brown May 24th, 2012 Here's your stat of the day, talk about sentiment... From Financial Planning: U.S. stock funds can’t seem to get any love these days, posting 13 consecutive weeks of outflows. For the week ended May 16, investors pulled an estimated $3.45 billion from the funds, according to the latest statistics from the Investment Company Institute. That’s $1.10 billion more than they withdrew from the funds a week earlier. Since the beginning of the year, the funds have lost $38 billion in outflows. Non-U.S. stock funds also took a beating, losing an estimated $117 million in outflows for the week. They took in $1.04 billion the week before. $38 billion yanked out of stock funds in ... Continue reading →

By Linda Stern WASHINGTON | Wed May 23, 2012 4:42pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If you work with an investment adviser, there's a decent chance that sometime during the last year, you've had a conversation about alternative investments. There's also a decent chance you emerged from that conversation without understanding exactly what your adviser was talking about. Don't feel bad - there's a lot of jargon surrounding what Robert Maloney, a Holderness, New Hampshire, financial adviser, calls "the flavor of the day."Strictly speaking, an alternative investment can mean anything that isn't a plain vanilla stock or bond, but now it represents a trendy grab-bag category that can include everything from gold or currency to mutual funds that employ hedges, leverage, options, short-selling, derivatives and more.This ... Continue reading →