Securities Exchange Act of 1934: Definitions Relevant to Products

What this video covers

• Whether a novel product triggers the statutory catch-all "commonly known as a security" and how to apply the Howey investment-contract test at exam time
• Why commodity futures are CFTC-regulated and not securities, while security futures are jointly SEC and CFTC regulated and do count as securities
• How convertible bonds carry equity security treatment despite their debt-like features, triggering insider reporting and short-swing-profit rules
• Why a bond with a detachable warrant splits into debt and equity components, and how separately traded warrants are supervised as standalone equity securities
• The critical distinction between exempted securities (US government, municipal) and excluded instruments (nine-month commercial paper), and why industrial revenue bonds are non-exempt governmental obligations
• The principal's pre-launch duty to document a securities-status conclusion through the New Product Review Committee as part of reasonable basis suitability
• The full regulatory framework that attaches when a product is deemed a security, versus where non-securities land (CFTC, state insurance commissioners)