Archive - Aug 2009

Technicals are a heresy in mainstream investing--they don't really teach them in school--but everyone that comes face to face with that beast called the market sooner or later figures out what they are.

"A U.S. judge on Monday denied a motion by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) to quash a request for personnel information on a former computer programmer accused of stealing trade secrets from the firm."

Almost as fun as connecting the dots. Courtesy of NNDB, where readers can add their own nodes. Not much data would be needed for this map to encircle the globe.

The SPY just hit a 2009 low in volume, and markedly below the comparable period last year.

Wild action today, as the dollar rally and cratering of most foreign currencies probably triggered massive margin calls on the 300:1 leveraged GridBot traders hoping that cash would "roll in" each week.

Hedge fund icon Mike Steinhardt voices on what the smartest money on Wall Street is thinking and it is nothing good - fast forward to 3 minutes 25 seconds. Steinhardt is completely correct in saying "You can not talk about valuations readily" in this market.

In June 2009, the Staff of the SEC provided State Street Bank with a “Wells” notice related to the SEC’s ongoing investigation into disclosures and management by SSgA of its active fixed-income strategies during 2007 and prior periods. The SEC Staff has informed us that it is proceeding with an enforcement recommendation to the SEC Commissioners asking the SEC Commissioners to authorize a civil enforcement action against us alleging violations of antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.

Hats off to Wall Street creativity once again. Not all of the old deep thinking has been lost. A potential 'hot deal' runs afoul of the ever diligent SEC.

We have learned that Goldman has retained the exalted law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, to quash the Aleynikov subpoena request. The lead partner on submitted papers is Matthew Friedrich, former assistant attorney general at the DOJ and deputy chief of staff to fomer US Attorney General, Michael Mukasey.

Dear Leader and Minions,

The only thing more un-American, anti-freedom, and hypocritical from this administration, that dared to campaign on the prior administration's respect of the constitution, than your attempt to socialize vast swaths of the American economy, is your new attempt to silence your legitimate critics. You have (collectively with your party) called them Nazis, you have lied about their generally peaceful demonstrations while ignoring the incredible hypocrisy of your own brown-shirt like efforts (New Black panther thugs let off the hook by Holder, Code Pink, SEIU and ACORN vigorously disrupting free speech; and just try to give a speech offending the Left on our academically "free" campuses?). Now this explicit effort to have Americans, who happen to disagree with the current people in charge, inform on other Americans to this email address. You all have no shame.

The facts as reported by the American Bankruptcy Institute: consumer bankruptcy filings reached 126,434 in July, a 34.3% increase year over year, and a 8.7% increase sequentially (116,365 in June). July's number is the highest monthly total since the October 2005 bankruptcy reform aka the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.

Sergey's alleged Goldman code-theft case, which seemed to be on the fast track to being promptly settled out of court, just took an odd turn. Matt Goldstein over at Reuters reports that instead of keeping quiet, Sergey has taken the offensive and has filed a subpoena on Goldman Sachs, "seeking access to some information." Goldman's response is a not very surprising motion in federal court to quash the subpoena. Either this is a red herring by Sergey, trying to make his plea deal case stronger, or there is indeed something in Goldman's books that needs further observation, and would, presumably, shed much needed light on either the Aleynikov affair, HFT, or both.

A major segment of the credit market - secured loans - still has to show the kind of comparable primary issuance pick up that has been witnessed in equities and riskier high-yield debt. Primary loan volumes are still running at half of the comparable 2008 period, particularly in the middle-market.

"The games are over and as people around the country are uniting, the likes of which this country has not seen in 200 years, I can assure you change is indeed coming. It is time to demand accountability from those running your funds. This has gone on far too long and is totally out of control."

The author of “Market Profile” Peter Steidlmayer has offered us one invaluable insight into how markets
behave and it borders on genius. Unfortunately, he has so many other insights that very few folks can find
the needle in the haystack that he called “false auctions.”