Hi all,
do I violate the C/S when posting my conclusion / analyst report only in Social Media?
Maybe I don’t violate II(B) but what about III(B) Fair Dealing?
Cheers,
Can you be more specific please? Do you mean an official analyst report you prepared for your firm for distribution to clients? Or is this an independent piece of analysis you developed on your own and simply want to share it with social media?
If the latter, are you working for a company as an analyst currently? Do you write reports for clients?
ok, I’ll try to change my question:
If I am a CFA M/C what is compliant with the C/S and which actions would violate in regard of Social Media?
- Using material from social media would be ok, unless the information are not material and nonpublic.
- I need to verify the information taken out of Social Media.
=> Basically, Standard II(A)
But how about acting / posting on Social Networks?
When sharing information in networks, it is not necessarily guaranteed that all clients are treated equally?
Hope I could clarify my point?
I guess my question is the same as I wrote above. Let’s set aside whether you are a member or candidate and focus on what the rules actually say.
If you have clients who read/pay for your research currently, or who pay you to manage their money, you owe them duties including that you need to treat them fairly. That means that either you distribute analysis according to whatever terms and conditions were agreed in the client relationship (however worded), or as a default it means all clients who are suitable or appropriate candidates for the analysis will receive notice/access to the analysis at generally the same time in whatever form, so they can have time to process and decide on it.
Which goes to my question, do you have clients either through yourself or your employer? If you do not have clients, you are not treating anyone unfairly because you need to have clients to be under the “clients” part of the standards. Or are you just posting your unsolicited independent analysis to social media? In that case nobody is paying for it or relying on your asset management skills/recommendations for their funds. If you don’t have actual clients, clients cannot be prejudiced as to your chosen form of media. Is your “analysis” simply usual market commentary, such as a news recap, or are you changing a price or buy/hold/sell recommendation for a stock or adding a new stock analysis with a recommendation? If the latter, and you have paying clients who rely on that, you need to make sure all are treated equally in their timely access to information. Which means paying clients generally should expect actual emails of your reports to them as part of your paid service, that’s what they are paying for in the first place. Such emails should occur in accordance with the terms and conditions of your client agreements etc., and as a default all suitable clients should expect to receive the emails at the same time.
Do you offer such analysis or asset management as part of your work to an employer? If yes then you will need to think about not only what is fair to your employer’s clients but also what is allowed by your employer. Is your analysis work part of your work for your employer or is this side analysis a type of “extracurricular” thing that could fall under a duty of loyalty or duty to disclose to your employer?
If you are simply a member/candidate who is without clients or without a job that is related to the market, then you have the basic duties of diligence and reasonable basis and not sharing material nonpublic or market manipulating information. And you have the duty not to accept side hustle paying gigs that take away from your focus to your employer’s work unless you clear it with your employer first.
Does this help? If you are paid to analyze the market or manage money you have duties to clients and your employer. If you are just a day trader postulating ideas to reddit etc on WSB, you may have no employer and you certainly have no clients. In the latter case you have duties to uphold the integrity of the market and to act on a diligent and reasonable basis, and to use your designation reference correctly without engaging in misdeeds. If your analysis is a paid side hustle then you need to disclose this to your employer if you have one.
Does this help? Cheers.
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