President-elect Obama is expected to make Schapiro’s appointment official today (Thursday).

Schapiro, 52, is currently the chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States, MarketWatch.com reported. FINRA was created in July 2007 through the merger of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and the member-regulation, enforcement and arbitration functions of the New York Stock Exchange.

Schapiro is also a former head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and former member of the SEC. She has been appointed to top finance-related government posts by two Republicans presidents and one Democratic chief executive.

If confirmed by the Senate, Schapiro would take over as head of an agency that has been roundly criticized for failing to detect signs of trouble on Wall Street, where enormous derivatives losses have led to the collapse of the investment banking sector, caused a near collapse of many top commercial banks, and forced the U.S. government to engage in a bailout effort that will end up costing taxpayers trillions of dollars.

Schapiro has plenty of experience. Before FINRA was formed, she had most recently served as chairman and chief executive officer of the NASD, an appointment that took effect in December 2006. Before her appointment as chairman and CEO, Schapiro had spent five years serving as the vice chairman of the NASD and president of its regulatory and oversight division. She’d been with the NASD since 1996.

According to some reports, because the NASD was an industry group, there were often accusations that it overlooked instances in which broker/dealer abuses trampled individual investor rights. Given the more-retail-oriented focus many markets have taken in recent years – with a majority of U.S. workers actually owning stocks via mutual funds or through their employer retirement plans – many industry insiders felt that a new organization was needed, especially one that would view protection of the public as paramount. The creation of FINRA was one offshoot of this push for increased indvidual-investor protection.

In a speech in June, Schapiro talked about the growing complexity of the financial markets and warned that highly sophisticated new products will only make matters even more challenging for individual investors. The upshot: bankruptcies and home foreclosures could jump, and many investors could find themselves facing a future in which they have little in the way of a financial cushion.

“In tough financial times, many investors feel pinched for cash – and some may search for different, often-risky ways to make ends meet, or to maintain a certain lifestyle,” Schapiro told listeners at a “Women in Housing and Finance” conference in Washington. “Troubling trends include investors leveraging or prematurely depleting their retirement savings, trading in their insurance policies in transactions known as ‘life settlements,’ and tapping their home equity through reverse mortgages. We are concerned that some investors may be risking their most valuable assets in an effort to raise cash—including those in or near retirement, who may not have time to recover their losses.”

And the other unfortunate part of that problem, Schapiro said, was that “some unscrupulous financial professionals—many of them unregistered—feed into this investor anxiety, pushing strategies and products that promise to provide balance and safety, but that often end up haunting an investor for a lifetime.”

Schapiro will bring skills – as well as experience – to her new post as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In late 2006, at the time of her appointment as NASD chairman, Richard F. Brueckner, the presiding governor of the NASD’s Board of Governors, described Shapiro as a “highly respected and effective regulator who has proven herself time and again to be a strong investor advocate.”

“She is a proven leader and is uniquely qualified to take over as the head of NASD as it continues to execute its vital mission of protecting investors and ensuring market integrity,” said Brueckner, who was also the CEO of financial-technology provider Pershing LLC.  “I am confident the securities industry will work closely with Mary and support NASD’s efforts to make regulation both more efficient and effective.”

Schapiro joined the NASD in 1996 as president of NASD regulation and was named vice chairman in 2002.  As head of NASD’s Regulatory Policy and Oversight Division, she served as the primary regulator of 5,100 securities brokerage firms and the nearly 700,000 registered brokers who were doing business with the public.

The division was responsible for writing rules that governed the conduct of virtually all aspects of the securities industry, including sales practices and financial and operational integrity; examining firms for compliance with those rules; and enforcement of NASD rules as well as those of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and federal securities laws.

At that time, the NASD also had regulatory responsibility for The NASDAQ Stock Market, the American Stock Exchange and the International Stock Exchange.

Before joining the NASD, Schapiro was the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a post to which President Bill Clinton had appointed her in 1994.  The CFTC is the federal agency responsible for regulation of the U.S. futures markets, including the financial, agricultural and energy markets.

As chairman, Schapiro participated in the President’s Working Group on Financial

Markets with the U.S. treasury secretary and the chairmen of both the U.S. Federal Reserve and the SEC.

Prior to her time with the CFTC, Schapiro served for six years as an SEC commissioner. She was appointed in 1988 by President Ronald W. Reagan, reappointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, and was named acting chairman by President Clinton in 1993.

At one point, Schapiro was an active member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and was elected Chairman of the IOSCO Consultative Committee in 2002 and 2004.

Schapiro currently serves as the “lead director” of Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT), and has been a board member since last year. She’s also a director of Duke Energy Corp. (DUK), a post she’s held since 1999.

Schapiro is a trustee of Franklin and Marshall College.

Source: Career Regulator Mary Schapiro – a “Strong Investor Advocate” – is Reportedly Obama’s Choice for SEC Chief

Is this stereotype a thing of the past? I think it is.

Last summer, the volume on the New York Stock Exchange was higher in June, July, and August than it was in the three months prior or the three months after. The credit crisis was just coming to light and this spurred some of the additional activity, but not all of it.

With a huge percentage of trades being entered electronically these days, the brokers and floor traders are not needed as much as they were in the past.

The old adage on Wall Street that says you should “sell in May and go away” was based on the summer months being boring, but I don’t think you can do this anymore. Over the last few summers, there was plenty of movement and money to be made. Most of it was on the down side of the market, so if you don’t like playing the short side of the market it made it tough, but there is just as much opportunity to the downside as there is the upside.

Just like you change your wardrobe for the summer months, you might want to change your investment tools for the summer months as well. Don’t just pack away your trading like you do your winter clothes. Learn to play moves to the downside and use some different tools to make money.

Given the shift in sentiment over the last few months, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another bearish summer. The CBOE Equity Put/Call Ratio, and in particular its 21-day moving average are sitting at very low levels. The 21-day moving average is as low as it has been since the end of December, right before the S&P pulled back from 1,500 to 1,300 in just under a month.

From a technical perspective, I am torn when it comes to the outlook for the S&P. Looking at the weekly chart, we can see that the index is overbought and facing resistance from its 50-week moving average.

On the daily chart, the index is coming out of an oversold level and bouncing between its 50 and 200-day moving averages. The trend line connecting the highs from October and November is still in place, but there is some room for the index to bounce.