President-elect Barack Obama is expected to name Mary L. Schapiro – a strong proponent of protections for individual investors – to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when his administration takes office next month, according to news media reports that began circulating last night (Wednesday).

Beware; we have now entered the dog days of summer. Historically, stock market volume slows from Memorial Day until Labor Day. The slow summer months are believed to come about because traders go on vacation and the traditional stereotype is that most of Wall Street is playing on the beaches in the Hamptons.