Archive - May 6, 2011

Jobs, jobs, jobs. A miss will mean QE3 is certain and send the market flying. A beat means the economy is sturdy and will send the market flying.

A snapshot of the European Morning Briefing covering Stocks, Bonds, FX, etc.
Market Recaps to help improve your Trading and Global knowledge

Following all the recent busts of former SAC and related portfolio managers, it was only a matter of time before prosecutors zeroed in on the guy at the top. The WSJ writes: Prosecutors are examining trades made in an account overseen by hedge-fund titan Steven Cohen that were suggested by two of his former fund managers who have pleaded guilty to insider trading. The development surfaced in court filings submitted in connection with a sweeping insider-trading investigation, which focuses on ways traders can receive nonpublic information from experts connected to industries or firms. At issue is trading in a $3 billion stock portfolio personally overseen by Mr. Cohen at SAC Capital Advisors and referred to by the government in the filings as the "Cohen Account" and internally at SAC as "The Big Book." SAC portfolio managers funnel their best trading ideas to Mr. Cohen for this account and are paid a bonus if they generate big returns for Mr. Cohen, according to people familiar with the matter." As a silo-based hedge fund, where every PM is given freedom to win or lose small amounts of money on their own, but make big amounts of money on the high conviction ideas, or, in other words, those in which the PM has a lot of inside information, it was only a matter of time before prosecutors realized that even teflon Stevie would eventually have commingled insider-information based trades. The only question now is how he weasles his way out. And unless the government totally screws up its case, it may be not that easy any more.