News

The North Dakota Securities Department has released its annual list of top investor threats and urges caution before purchasing popular and volatile unregulated investments – especially those involving cryptocurrency and digital assets.  Along with the list of top investor threats, the Department also provides guidance for investors, including steps to take to protect against fraud in the new year. 

As part of its ongoing effort to raise investor awareness, the North Dakota Securities Department has issued an investor advisory discussing Decentralized Finance (DeFi), a relatively new blockchain-based set of financial products and services.

In a combined effort to provide additional protection for investors, FINRA and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), of which the North Dakota Securities Department is a member, have announced a new campaign urging investors to provide their financial firms with a trusted contact. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (SEC OIEA) is also collaborating on this initiative. 

Mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) offer investors a cost-efficient way to invest in professionally managed portfolios of securities. While it is often tempting to make a purchase based on a fund’s historical performance, informed investors know that past performance is no guarantee of future performance, and that they must review a fund’s prospectus, shareholder reports and portfolio holdings to see if the fund’s risk/return profile aligns with theirs. An informed investor will pay particular attention to a fund’s expense ratio, which, over time, can eat into a fund’s earnings significantly.