Mobile trading apps and web platforms are much less secure than banking apps, according to a report from U.S. cybersecurity firm IOActive Inc., which found a variety of vulnerabilities in a series of recent tests.
Overall, the firm reports, its tests of the security on a variety of brokerage firms’ trading apps, which were carried out from mid-2017 to mid-2018, found brokers’ security measures to be much weaker than comparable banking apps. Among other things, it found weaknesses with encryption, denial of service and authentication measures.
In particular, it found desktop apps and mobile apps that transmitted some data unencrypted, including passwords and certain personal information. It also found passwords that are stored unencrypted, which could be vulnerable to hackers.
The company’s blog post about this, which includes a link to the full report, is titled Are You Trading Stocks Securely? Exposing Security Flaws in Trading Technologies.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
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| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.6544 % | 3,103.9 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.6544 % | 5,695.4 |
| Floater | 3.48 % | 3.69 % | 51,688 | 18.06 | 4 | -0.6544 % | 3,282.3 |
| OpRet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0236 % | 3,212.1 |
| SplitShare | 4.57 % | 4.38 % | 47,959 | 4.85 | 5 | 0.0236 % | 3,835.9 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0236 % | 2,992.9 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.62 % | -11.36 % | 59,130 | 0.09 | 10 | 0.0197 % | 2,912.7 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.40 % | 5.51 % | 60,051 | 14.62 | 25 | 0.2024 % | 2,992.8 |
| FixedReset | 4.28 % | 4.71 % | 129,777 | 3.77 | 107 | 0.2440 % | 2,582.5 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.13 % | 5.88 % | 55,289 | 5.41 | 26 | 0.2037 % | 2,982.4 |
| FloatingReset | 3.35 % | 3.53 % | 29,650 | 5.74 | 7 | -0.0391 % | 2,836.7 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| BAM.PR.B | Floater | -1.01 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-08-09 Maturity Price : 17.69 Evaluated at bid price : 17.69 Bid-YTW : 3.69 % |
| NA.PR.E | FixedReset | 1.01 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-08-09 Maturity Price : 22.84 Evaluated at bid price : 24.12 Bid-YTW : 4.91 % |
| TRP.PR.D | FixedReset | 1.02 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-08-09 Maturity Price : 22.16 Evaluated at bid price : 22.85 Bid-YTW : 5.06 % |
| HSE.PR.A | FixedReset | 1.30 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-08-09 Maturity Price : 17.93 Evaluated at bid price : 17.93 Bid-YTW : 5.27 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| GWO.PR.Q | Deemed-Retractible | 154,400 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.85 Bid-YTW : 6.17 % |
| NA.PR.E | FixedReset | 142,319 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-08-09 Maturity Price : 22.84 Evaluated at bid price : 24.12 Bid-YTW : 4.91 % |
| CM.PR.S | FixedReset | 122,470 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-08-09 Maturity Price : 22.82 Evaluated at bid price : 24.01 Bid-YTW : 4.82 % |
| TRP.PR.C | FixedReset | 75,715 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-08-09 Maturity Price : 17.79 Evaluated at bid price : 17.79 Bid-YTW : 5.10 % |
| MFC.PR.Q | FixedReset | 66,210 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2023-06-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.10 Bid-YTW : 4.79 % |
| CM.PR.R | FixedReset | 61,656 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2022-07-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.35 Bid-YTW : 4.07 % |
| There were 29 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| MFC.PR.N | FixedReset | Quote: 24.03 – 24.50 Spot Rate : 0.4700 Average : 0.2737 YTW SCENARIO |
| MFC.PR.R | FixedReset | Quote: 26.17 – 26.45 Spot Rate : 0.2800 Average : 0.1731 YTW SCENARIO |
| VNR.PR.A | FixedReset | Quote: 24.80 – 25.14 Spot Rate : 0.3400 Average : 0.2568 YTW SCENARIO |
| CM.PR.S | FixedReset | Quote: 24.01 – 24.24 Spot Rate : 0.2300 Average : 0.1511 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PR.T | FixedReset | Quote: 21.25 – 21.48 Spot Rate : 0.2300 Average : 0.1547 YTW SCENARIO |
| TRP.PR.H | FloatingReset | Quote: 17.09 – 17.42 Spot Rate : 0.3300 Average : 0.2605 YTW SCENARIO |