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Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) announced Tuesday that it had adopted a so-called shareholder rights plan to ward off "efforts to obtain control of the Company that are inconsistent with the best interests of the Company and its stockholders."

The company didn't go into specifics, but it is likely a response to billionaire Ronald Burkle's recent disclosure that he had boosted his stake in the company to 17.8%. In a press release, Barnes & Noble disclosed how the rights work:

Barnes & Noble (BKS - option chain) shares have been moving sharply higher for the past few days and are continuing that trend today. Company insider and billionaire investor Ronald Burkle reported purchasing more than 4.4 million shares of BKS in the past week alone, valued at $90.2M. When a major holder makes a big purchase like that, it is often a sign of good things to come for that stock, if only because other investors may follow his lead. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on BKS.

BKS opened this morning at $21.00. So far today the stock has hit a low of $20.86 and a high of $21.55. As of 12:30, BKS is trading at $21.43 up 93 cents (4.5%). The chart for BKS looks bearish and S&P gives BKS a negative 2 STARS (out of 5) sell ranking.

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX - option chain) stock is trading lower today after the company reported some recent insider selling. According to SEC filings, NFLX Director Gregory Strangre sold over 19,000 shares of NFLX on Wednesday for $54.48 per share. He and other insiders have combined to sell more than $2.2M of NFLX stock in the past week, which could be interpreted as a bearish sign for the company. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on NFLX.

This morning, NFLX opened at $54.96. So far today the stock has hit a high of $55.84 and a low of $54.00. As of 11:50, NFLX is trading at $55.26, down $1.13 (-2.0%). The chart for NFLX looks bullish and S&P does not currently have a STARS rating for NFLX.

Another player in the Bernie Madoff saga has fallen. His longtime auditor, David Friehling, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to charges of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, making false filings with the SEC, and obstructing or impeding the administration of the Internal Revenue laws (among others).

Despite the plea, Friehling still told U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, "At no time was I ever aware Bernard Madoff was engaged in a Ponzi scheme."

Raj Rajaratnam's life has just changed profoundly. The 52-year-old founder, fund manager, and partner at the Galleon Group has been accused of insider trading, conspiring with others (now named as defendants with him) to trade shares of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Hilton (OTC: HLNQ), and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA), among others. Rajaratnam generated $25 million in profits on these trades, but that's moot now.

Rajaratnam, who is #559 on the list of the world's richest people, with a net worth of $1.3 billion, now faces fines of up to $250,000 and from 5 to 20 years in prison. I doubt he'll be in the same slot on next year's list of billionaires.

The Finger Family, based in Houston, owns more than 1 million shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and has risen to express its opinion about who should be the company's new CEO: someone from outside the company.

In a letter to the company's shareholders filed with the SEC, the Finger family raised a number of fantastic points about why promoting from within is a horrible, horrible idea. In a way, it's so obviously not the way to go that it's a tribute to the board's incompetence that this discussion even has to be had. But here are a few of the Finger family's points:

We can just about shelve any hopes of banking reform from Congress. Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said: "I don't think you're going to see that happen" (referring to mandates for financial companies to process their swaps through a clearinghouse).

Frank went on to say that there would be a presumption that standardized contracts would be sent to a clearinghouse but that it would not be an iron clad rule. With the bankers ignoring established rules and doing pretty much what they want, forget about that idea.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) will be making corporate governance changes soon as a result of a lawsuit settlement.

Dell did not admit any wrongdoing (naturally) after a recent lawsuit accused certain Dell directors and employees of engaging in insider trading practices, as well as making false statements about the state of the company's business.

The market has made a nice rebound in recent months, instilling confidence in investors that the worst is over.

But there's at least one negative indicator: Insiders are dumping stock. Charles Biderman of market research firm Trim Tabs tells Fortune that there were $31 worth of insider stock sales for every $1 in buying during the month of August. Worse, this comes at a time when public companies are raising money through stock offerings while putting the brakes on the share buybacks that were giving a boost to the stock market until the recent bear market.

How do they do it? How is the price of oil manipulated?

The New York Times offers a look inside a company that allegedly manipulated oil prices and the methods they used to do it. The company is based in Amsterdam. It is little known and maintains a low profile, yet has become a force to reckoned with in the oil markets. What is the name of this company? It's called Optiver, and it employs about 600 people.

If you think the health care debate is a big brouhaha, its nothing compared to the behind the scenes battle over government regulation of derivatives.

On the government side we have a proposal that would require the most standard derivatives to be processed through a clearinghouse, whose members would make good on any default. This is the way the commodity markets operate. For "nonstandardized contracts," banks would have to put up more capital or margin.

Mary Schapiro, chairperson of the the SEC, wants to collect critical data on derivatives transactions to pursue market abuses.

Schapiro said that regulators need the data to construct an audit trail to find out who is doing insider trading and market manipulation. The U.S. Senate is investigating the derivatives markets but is up against a brick wall because it cannot pin down who it is that actually pulled the trigger on the trades. So they are relying on the SEC to provide this data. Schapiro said that the SEC is having difficulty identifying derivative investors and the size of their trades.

Here's a bit of juicy news. According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) plans to crack down on market manipulators. They have decided to levy fines up to $1 million dollars per violation a day. The rule covers both physicals and futures.

The crackdown involves mainly the oil traders. Specifically, the language reads as follows: It bans oil market players from issuing "false public announcements of planned pricing or output decisions, false statistical or data reporting, and wash sales intended to disguise the actual liquidity of a market or the price of a particular product." The rules would also prohibit "material omissions from a statement that, although true, is misleading under the circumstances."

The SEC plans to ban "flash trades." What are flash trades? Flash trades give some brokerages an advance look at orders. Most major exchanges, except the NYSE Euronet, use the flash trade system. It gives clients a look at orders a fraction of a second before the trades are routed to rival platforms. The practice is deemed unfair and is the reason for the ban.

A ban would reverse a 2004 SEC ruling permitting flash trades. Flash trades account for only 2.4% of shares traded in the US. The proposal to ban the activity by the SEC is subject first to a vote by SEC commissioners, then feedback is requested for a period of between 30 and 90 days. Then, commissioners come back and vote on whether or not to enact the ban.

Ben Bernanke has pledged $12.3 trillion to help the banks and financial institutions. Where is all this money going? Much of it is going directly into the banks' accounts, hidden from the public.

This is how the game works. The Fed is Wall Street's biggest customer, buying massive amounts of mortgage-backed securities from banks. Now the Fed is being Mr. Nice Guy and publishes in advance the securities it intends to buy. Mr. Rip Off, the bank, simply raises the selling price to the Fed. The inflated prices produce huge profits for the banks. Of course the Fed knows all this is going on. This is simply a backdoor method of funneling government money into bank coffers.