Archive - Nov 2009 - Story

A recent note out of permabullish ward of the state BofAMLCFC (makes sense why they would be permabulls: after all nobody asks why CNBC is a non-stop propaganda mouthpiece for pro-market, pro-GE, pro-stimulus policies... everyone makes fun of it, everyone cracks up at Kudlow and company, but nobody questions it - it does, after all, make complete sense when one considers their agenda is to have all their ever diminishing viewers purchase however many shares of their soon to be former employer GE, even if it means said viewers financial ruin in a month or a year) shares some interesting perspectives on what would happen if a market that is priced for absolute perfection does not end up occurring (or, scarier, does). The note below out of Sadiq Currimbhoy, Merrill's Hong Kong strategist should be kept in mind any time readers enjoy the rosy propaganda from Merrill's David Bianco, which has the form, consistency and texture of two-ply Charmin'.

Have you recovered from last night?  Perfect (whatever your answer was)!  Let's do it again.

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With over 30 people arrested or cooperating with the US Attorney General in the biggest insider trading bust in history, one can be sure that as many of those wishing to avoid jail time sing, many more arrests will undoubtedly come. Will this investigation impact "information arbitrage" specialist SAC (as Zero Hedge has speculated)? As of now the firm has gone through unscathed, although the net may be closing in on the 72 Cummings Point Road behemoth. After all, why would the SEC attempt to place its informant back with Steve Cohen's $12 billion hedge fund unless they had prior reason to be suspicious, and unless Richard Lee had advised them of improprieties handled by the man who trades 10% of the NYSE's (declining) volume daily. An arrest implicating billionaire Steve Cohen would likely make (or destroy) the political career of whoever the attorney prosecuting him. Which is why any evidence better be ironclad.

Who would have thought that central bankers who have been offloading gold the last 10 years would suddenly reverse course and become buyers? Hey, can't blame these guys. They are into self preservation just like any other Fidelity, Putnam, or Vanguard "Money Mangler" on Wall Street attempting to save his career and avoid becoming an unemployment statistic or worse, pushed off the social register.

David Einhorn is angry at CDS. But is that the full story? Hardly. We believe Einhorn's attack on CDS is an implicit attack on the broken core of the fiat monetary system itself.

If you have been wondering why Rentec, GETCO, Citadel and Highbridge are sweating these days, it is because the SEC is preparing to finally remove the rock they all crawl under as they execute millions of trades each and every second. As Traders Magazine reports, "the Securities and Exchange Commission, in an effort to get more information about high-frequency trading, plans to dust off an old statute that allows it to require large traders to "self-identify" themselves. As part of the plan, the SEC will propose a rule implementing a large trader reporting system for non-broker-dealers." So if you see any particularly abnormal market behavior these days, don't be surprised if it is simply due to Jimbo and Kenny doing all the can to pocket last any minute revenue before the hammer comes crashing down.

The concentration of ownership in the financial services industry has resulted in higher bank fees and interest rates that consumers are forced to pay for credit cards, mortgages and other financial products.

No single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of American jobs or to our nation’s economic well-being.

No single financial institution should have holdings so extensive that its failure could send the world economy into crisis.

We believe it is time to break up the banks and insurance companies which are too big to fail.

LEBOWSKI: Did I urinate on your rug?

DUDE: You mean, did you personally come and pee on my--

LEBOWSKI: Hello! Do you speak English? Parla usted Inglese? I'll say it again. Did I urinate on your rug?

DUDE: Well no, like I said, Woo peed on the rug--

Not spinning. On a Friday. It's going to take more than four decrepit bank failures to keep me off the decks.

Our test broadcast begins, well, now.  Live stuff from yours truly? Think 10:15ish ET.  The heat of the party?  You'll know it when you hear it. 

As Marla may or may not be spinning tonight, we leave you with this until such time as she decides what she is doing.

One sometimes wonders why the idiots in Washington have still not bailed out the private equity industry. After all, for the low, low price of about $100 billion (which is about how much keeping Fannie on life support will cost US taxpayers in the first quarter of 2010 alone), Congress can ensure that thousands of PE associates, VPs and MDs can once again frequent Hustler Club, order dozens of bottles of Cristal at Lotus, and eat sushi straight off geisha bodies at Bar Masa. In other words, a return to those oh so difficult days of 2007. Furthermore, looking at the track record of PE, especially as characterized by its 10 largest deals in history, one can make the mistake that KKR, Apollo, Bain, Carlyle and Providence are all employing exclusively government workers: therefore the government would in essence be bailing out itself.

For those who are interested in more information, Moody's has compiled a useful report, entitled "$640 billion & 640 days later: how companies sponsored by big private equity have performed during the U.S. recession."

It is your friend for a while... until....

Did you ever wish for a crystal ball that can tell you when the market is going up or down? How about a personal trading advisor that can recommend when to enter a trade? If you said yes to either one of these, you are not alone. Imagine if you had a trading platform that did both and was easy to use. A trading platform with no complex portfolios, no difficult software and no expensive data feeds. After a few brainstorm sessions and lots of coffee, we built Quant Trader EOD (End of Day). We also added simple portfolio building, easy to use software and a free data feed. In fact, Quant Trader is so effective and easy to use that a trader with literally no experience can be up and running in one day...

Yep. Sure enough. Refresh this thread for updates as they come.

Following up on the Kanjorski news earlier, it is now Senator Bernie Sanders who is set to anger PETA with his desire to disembowel pristine examples of cephalopodean vampyrrhic perfection. The Senator has revealed legislation which requires the AIG-bailout mastermind Tim Geithner to name banks "whose collapse may shake the economy" and break up these firms in a year. Look for some serious flight or flight sympathetic/parasympathetic ganglia to be going like gangbusters in the dorsal column of various bloodsucking marine creatures. After all who'd a thunk that the willing victims of daily monetary rape would have the guts to stand up for themselves (and if things are accelerating now, wait until Main Street learns that the average Goldman employee is getting paid about $750,000 for 2009).