At The Motley Fool, we know our readers like to be informed. We have scouted out today's most relevant news items and brought them to you all on one page. We hope you find this midday edition informative and useful.

UBS trading pains
UBS (NYSE: UBS) is under scrutiny after one of its traders, Kweku Adoboli, allegedly raked up $2 billion in losses through illegal trades. According to The Wall Street Journal, Adoboli confessed he had done the trades. Risk-control officers discovered the loss on Wednesday and began questioning Adoboli, who later left to go home. From there he sent an email to managers admitting he had done the trades. Adoboli was then arrested by the London police. In addition to the regular 24 hours, authorities have been granted a 12-hour extension for how long they can detain Adoboli. No charges have been made against the rogue trader.

UBS feels the pressure of the loss considering it had overhauled its risk management system after losing $50 billion in securities three years ago. Investors had given the bank a hard time after its near collapse in the 2008 financial crisis. Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

RIM's slippery slope
Research In Motion 's (Nasdaq: RIMM) investors were disappointed for the third quarter in a row. The company, which is struggling to compete with Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad and iPhone, reported a revenue drop of $4.17 billion. Its profit fell to $0.80 a share versus the expected $0.88. The company's tablet, the Playbook, was out-shipped by the iPad 46-1 in the last quarter.

But RIM is hoping its new generation of BlackBerry phones -- the first in a year -- will take market share from both Apple and other companies using Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android operating platform. The company will also release new software for the Playbook that will bring an email function to the tablet and allow many of the Android applications. Read more at Bloomberg.

Yahoo! gets bidders
 As more bidders circle over Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), the once-mighty Internet empire weighs its options to sell. The company is considering whether to sell the whole business or sell off parts. Yahoo! has already received a bid from private equity firm Silver Lake, sources said. Other potential buyers include Microsoft and Alibaba Group. The offers come at a critical time for the company as it falls behind competitors like Google. Last week, the board dismissed its CEO Carol Bartz, saying she had not been able to show enough progress during her two years at the company. The board has discussed Silver Lake's offer and hired Allen & Company to continue reviewing Yahoo!'s business. Read more at DealBook.

Goldman closes Global Alpha fund
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) decided to close Global Alpha, a hedge fund that relies on computer-based trading, after it accrued a hefty amount of losses last year. The company told members the fund would close within the next few weeks, despite having been the poster boy for their quantitative trading. Global Alpha held roughly $1.6 billion. People familiar with the hedge fund said it had dropped about 13% in September -- more than most computer-run hedge funds. Read more at Reuters. 

So there you have it -- the top financial stories for this afternoon. If you are interested in getting all the news and commentary on these stocks, sign up for My Watchlist here. It's free!