The SEC is looking at what role, if any, "quote stuffing" - trading in which unusually large numbers of orders to buy or sell stocks are placed in a fraction of a second, only to be canceled almost immediately - played during the May 6 flash crash. The agency reportedly is investigating whether the practice is putting some investors at a disadvantage by distorting stock prices. Traders say the phenomenon of huge bursts of orders flooding stocks and then getting canceled has risen with the growth of high-speed computerized trading in recent years. In addition, the SEC is looking into another practice, "sub-penny pricing," in which large numbers of orders are priced in increments as small as one-tenth of a cent and far away from the actual price at which a stock is trading. At issue is whether the practice is being used to manipulate the market.

This year, the Labor and Treasury departments asked for comments on steps the government could take to steer workers into annuities. The departments plan to hold a hearing on the proposals beginning Sept. 14. Among the topics to be discussed, according to the hearing announcement, are the concerns expressed by some about the choice of annuities over other investments and strategies that also aim to provide lifetime income. Other options include mutual funds designed to provide monthly income to investors such as retirees, but income from these managed-payout funds isn't guaranteed, and with these funds debuting during a hostile stock market environment, early investors have seen their monthly payments reduced.

Investors are moving away from stocks and focusing on safer assets, such as bonds and cash. Wall Street is concerned that the shunning of stocks will last for years, resulting in a lost generation of investors, writes Adam Shell in USA Today. Stock mutual funds have experienced cash outflows of about $245 billion since the start of 2008, while bond mutual funds have had inflows of nearly $616 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute. There are a number of factors that could draw investors back to stocks, including a pickup in hiring, a new bull market, a dividend rebound, single-digit price-to-earnings ratios, and clarity over government policy.

Simpler is often better for investors, writes Jonathan Burton of the Wall Street Journal. Burton says that investors just need three diversified index-tracking mutual funds or ETFs—one for U.S. stocks, one for international stocks and one for bonds. The portfolio must be rebalanced at least once a year to ensure that half of the money stays in stocks and half in bonds. "It's boring and bland and won't score you any points at parties, but this bare-bones approach ... has made almost as much money as a more aggressive, stock-heavy strategy over the past 25 years and topped it over the past decade," says Burton.

Only about 10 percent of traditional IRA investors contribute in any given year, according to data collected by the Investment Company Institute and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Though the percentage sounds subpar when compared with 401(k) activity, Sarah Holden, senior director of retirement and investor research for ICI, notes that "when making comparisons of what kind of contribution activity goes on in a traditional IRA to a 401(k) or other direct contribution plan, from the onset you have" a commingling of "parked people that just confounds it." The data showed that 63 percent of those who contributed in 2007 made a repeat contribution in 2008 and that 60 percent contributed at the legal limit in 2007, of which more than half did so as well in 2008. "So not only are they contributing, they are taking full advantage of the contribution amount appropriate for their age," says Holden. "That is actually quite remarkable. ... If you look at 2008, it wasn't a very good year in terms of the economy or the stock market."

How to make money in a tough market, with Whitney Tilson of Tilson Mutual Funds.