BRAEDEN ANDERSON
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Hi, I’m Braeden.
I'm a partner at Gesmer Updegrove LLP, where I lead the Securities Regulatory and Enforcement and Digital Assets practice areas. I’ve served as Assistant General Counsel at Robinhood, practiced at Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin, and represented clients in high-stakes matters before the SEC, DOJ, FINRA, and state regulators.
I write and make content for people who don’t have time to guess: founders, lawyers, regulators, and smart operators who know better than to rely on Google or the AI answer without context.
I've been recognized by U.S. Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® for Financial Services and Securities Regulation, and listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America for contributions to law and public service.
Enjoy the content. I hope you find what you’re looking for. And if you want to talk something through, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d love to hear from you. It’s really cool when readers become clients.
Options Approval, Supervision, and Where Disputes Commonly Arise
Options trading has become widely accessible to retail investors, particularly through online and app-based brokerage platforms. That accessibility, however, operates within a regulatory framework that assigns specific responsibilities to broker-dealers while preserving customer autonomy in self-directed accounts. Many disputes in this area arise not from market outcomes, but from questions about how that framework functions in practice.
FINRA's $25K Rule Is on the Chopping Block: What a Lower PDT Threshold Could Mean for Retail Trading
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is reportedly preparing a seismic change to its pattern day trading (PDT) rule—a rule that, since 2001, has required investors to maintain a minimum $25,000 account balance to engage in more than three margin-based day trades in a rolling five-day period. Under a draft proposal is reportedly under internal review, that threshold may soon drop to just $2,000.