BANKING_Merrill Lynch settled for market timing activities

Merrill Lynch & Co. settled with two state regulators in the price of $13.5 million to resolve charges it failed to supervise employees who made improper mutual fund trades, reported Reuters.

New Jersey, Connecticut and New York Stock Exchange have cooperated to investigate the trades of marketing timing mutual funds. A hedge fund, Millennium Partners L.P has alleged to New Jersey Bureau of Security and settled with Merrill Lynch in $10 million. The other $3.5 million settlement with Connecticut regulator is still pending, according to NYSE.

From Wallstreetaccess, market timing is an investment strategy based on predicting market trends. The goal of market timing is to anticipate trends, buying before the market goes up and selling before the market goes down. Although some investors practice market timing, the results over the long term are less successful than a buy-and-hold strategy.

Seems market timing is not a totally bad thing, hmmm...