The SEC marked the end of 2014 by tweeting "Top 10" lists of both the most-viewed news stories of 2014 on SEC.gov, as well as the most-searched terms on SEC.gov.

Here are 2014's Top 10 most-viewed news stories on SEC.gov: 

See the list: 2014’s most-viewed news on http://t.co/kacEcWakdu pic.twitter.com/zrASY0Ia9j

— SEC_News (@SEC_News) December 31, 2014

 

With a few exceptions, the items on this list were not at all what I would have expected to be the most-viewed SEC news stories of the year. However, if you assume that people wind up viewing stories on SEC.gov based on Google or other web searches, I guess I can see how two stories about marijuana (nos. 4 and 9) made the list, and how a story with a headline including the words "college" and "naked" snuck on to the list at no. 10!

The SEC also published a list of the Top 10 most-searched terms on SEC.gov. That list is as follows:

What were the top search terms on http://t.co/kacEcWakdu in 2014? Check out our list: pic.twitter.com/HaNYS8iL8e

— SEC_News (@SEC_News) December 30, 2014

 

I was not familiar with three of these search terms (telexfree; zhunrise; and goas), but it turns out that both Telexfree and Zhunrise are alleged pyramid schemes affecting thousands of investors. In fact, Telexfree, the no. 2 search term, is actually the main defendant in the no. 1 viewed news story ("SEC Halts Pyramid Scheme Targeting Dominican and Brazilian Immigrants"). "Goas" remains a mystery to me, even after a quick bit of research. The other seven terms on the list make sense in that they are either high-profile companies that people are seeking information about, or specific types of information or searches that people would want to obtain or carry out on SEC.gov.