Regulation FD, for fair disclosure, requires companies to disclose material information at once to all investors rather than a select few.

He is the first individual to be penalized for violating Regulation FD, which was adopted more than two years ago.

Regulation FD, he said, "levels the playing field and brings back old-fashioned, bottoms-up, belly-to-belly financial analysis."

While it will surely bring greater volatility, Regulation FD should also produce some benefits for individual investors.

The judge also criticized the agency's interpretation of Regulation FD, saying it could have the effect of making corporations less forthcoming.

Before Regulation FD, the study found, 30 percent of analyst forecasts for a given company came on multiforecast days.

Regulation FD requires companies to release material information publicly, rather than privately to Wall Street analysts.

We believe that the precedent of Regulation FD is largely inapposite in this regard and, therefore, have not added these definitions.

And since markets function best when there's more information, the market will work less well if Regulation FD is ratified.

The new Regulation FD is to take effect on Oct. 23.