APB Financial Group, a brokerage firm that also manages $175m for wealthy investors, has decided to stop charging clients for unprofitable trades.

Clients will pay fees on a sliding scale – from 1 to 3 per cent of gains, for example – only if the value of their portfolio increases. If they break even or lose money, they pay only transaction fees on the trades their brokers make.

Last year, the capital markets anticipated and confirmed that our economy was heading into a recession. The capital markets always anticipate fundamental structural changes in the economy, and often they are right. In 2001, the capital markets re-evaluated the prospects of almost every company in the U.S. economy to reflect a decrease in future operating earnings. However, with this broad-brushed re-evaluation of the economy, all securities were downgraded when not all of them were losing intrinsic value.

On April 12, 2002 Steven Abernathy, principal of The Abernathy Group was interviewed live on “Business Unusual” regarding the Merrill Lynch probe by New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer.

Merrill Lynch said Thursday that they New York attorney general has agreed to extend a court order requiring the country’s biggest broker to make changes in the way it discloses the relationships between its equity analysts and investment bankers.

As a physician, you know that almost any medication or procedure carries some risk. As an investor, the same holds true.

Even the broadest portfolio entails some peril, notes The Washington Post. But risk comes in two forms: market or systematic risk, and idiosyncratic or extra risk.

You can’t avoid market risk. Over the past 75 years, the Post says, market risk, as measured in standard deviation, has hovered around 20%. Think of it this way: In two-thirds of the years, the S&P’s annual return has ranged between a loss of 9% and a gain of 31%. That’s the risk you have to live with if you invest in stocks.

There are things we can control and others we cannot. Financial risk adheres to this actuality-there are controllable and uncontrollable risks. Successful physician-investors must be able to identify the difference between the two types before they can take advantage of the opportunities presented by learning to manage risk well.

Collaborative Investing is an investment research philosophy that I have followed for 11 years. It has proven its worth time and time again. Essentially, it is uniting the knowledge base of industry experts — practitioners in specific industries with a working knowledge of products — with your financial expertise.

Some ideas are so obvious it takes a genius to think of them.

Steven Abernathy does not claim to be a financial genius, but he is quick to call you a fool if you think you can beat his investments. Yet it is not a matter of pride; in fact, he needs your help.

These solid choices from Wall Street’s savviest minds will see you through any short-term market setbacks.

Some physicians are finding their clinical knowledge can be as valuable in the marketplace as it is in the hospital or examining room. They’re partnering with investment specialists to identify companies with promising new medical products.

For some, the results have been spectacular. From Jan. 1, 1991, through Dec. 31, 1995, physician investors pursuing an aggressive growth strategy with fund manager Steven Abernathy at New York investment house Cowen & Co. have seen their money grow by more than 1,000%. That’s among the highest rates of return for any money manager on Wall Street, according to Barron’s, about 10 times the growth in the Standard & Poor’s 500 during the same period.