Institutional Investors

Yesterday Eurostat disclosed that in order to hide its debt over the past decade, Greece had entered into not one, not two, but a total of 13 different currency swap contracts with Goldman Sachs, all based on the exchange of assorted currencies against the euro as well as one involving a dollar-CHF swap. This was a topic that was all the rage back in early 2010 when it was unclear just how deep the Greek insolvency runs, and was pushed into the open after Zero Hedge first exposed Titlos PLC, an SPV securitization deal by the National Bank of Greece which not took a shady "off the books" currency swap and then securitized it. Since then this story has died down as it has become all too clear just how insolvent not only Greece but all other European countries are, and it no longer matter to haggle over pennies when entire countries subsist day to day purely due to the generosity of the ECB. Yet while Eurostat disclosed the number of the swaps it did not provide detail into just what was contained within these swaps. Which is why back in December, Bloomberg, which recently won a lawsuit against the Fed and achieved release of top secret bank bailout documents, sued the ECB, asking "the European Union’s General Court in Luxembourg to overturn a decision by the ECB not to disclose two internal documents drafted for the central bank’s six-member executive board in Frankfurt this year. The notes show how Greece used swaps to hide its borrowings, according to a March 3 cover page attached to the papers obtained by Bloomberg News." Yet even now that it is all too clear just what the true fiscal situation of Greece and the periphery is, the ECB is still scrambling to hide its secretive and potentially fraudulent practices. Per Bloomberg: "The European Central Bank asked the European Union’s General Court to dismiss a lawsuit seeking the disclosure of documents showing how Greece used derivatives to hide loans and triggered the region’s sovereign debt crisis." The reason provided: "The ECB has complete discretion to decide what it should
publish in the public interest, according to its defense to a
lawsuit filed by Bloomberg News. Releasing the papers could
damage the commercial interests of the ECB’s counterparties,
hurt the region’s banks and markets, and undermine the economic
policy of Greece and the EU, the central bank said." The reason given is the usual one: "Releasing the papers could
damage the commercial interests of the ECB’s counterparties,
hurt the region’s banks and markets, and undermine the economic
policy of Greece and the EU, the central bank said." And so the mutual assured destruction pantomime continues unabated, even though everyone knows by now that nothing of the threatened would ever actually happen.

I know there is something deep in our psychology to which Black Swan hedges appeal. It seduces me too. A part of brains are wired to fear the unknown, when they part dominates our rational thinking, we process facts in a fearful way. There is another part that embraces complexity, uncertainty, and conflict. This part most people need to nurture. Why? Because fear on an applied level equals conservatism: when one conserves, there is no expansion, no newness. Instead there is theory and dogma and ritual tinged with worry and despair. A trader snorting coke off a luscious Ukrainian tummy needs the opposite. Says the Preacher: “There is a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.” I think this wise rabbi means this: learn to trust yourself, trust in your ability to rebuild and be awesome. But don’t bet the whole megillah on how big you think your dick is.

A brief intro into what top funds are doing...

Is there value in hitting a brick wall? What about in losing money?

Quebec's hedge funds are about to get a boost from some big players...

Stocks and spreads lost ground today following an ebullient pre-open and relatively stable start as early up-in-quality themes played out. Breadth in credit was positive but low beta considerably outperformed high beta and there was notable net selling in the secondary corporate bond market especially in the Financials and Consumer NonCyclical sectors.

Tuesday is my 40th birthday so please be kind as you read through my comment on life, health, work, markets and friendship. I'm also soliciting advice and donations for my blog...

Maybe it’s all the rain lately but my funny bone is tingling. This week the FOMC conducts a two day meeting whereby Fed officials will clarify intentions regarding the perceived closure (or not) of QE2 and the policy body will also address growing concerns (or not) about inflation. To mark a new era in Fed communications, Chairman Bernanke will hold a press conference at the conclusion of the FOMC on Wednesday. This conference has all the makings of its predecessor, historically volatile semi-annual Humphrey Hawkins testimonies on monetary policy in front of Congress. It’s a good thing since in the past month alone sixteen different Fed policymakers (did you know there were that many?) have given more than forty formal addresses, in addition to television, newspaper and newswire interviews. And Congress isn’t in this week.

Despite being in violation of Exchange and SEC requirements, shares in RTO fraudster companies like CCME STILL have not been suspended! What's it going to take to get regulators to finally take RTO abuse seriously???

It is one thing for sellside research, caught in its traditional lemming frenzy, to cut national GDP outlook. In the case of Japan the resistance to reality provide futile early on and based on the average of 43 economists' forecasts, economic growth is now expected to post a 0.22% GDP decline in Q1 and a whopping 2.83% in the April-June period. As had been predicted this is not surprising. What is surprising, is that the head of the BOJ, Shirakawa-san himself has now indicated that Japanese growth is stalling. Per the WSJ: ""We are now expecting production and GDP will decline in the first quarter and the second quarter," Mr. Shirakawa said in an interview on Friday. It is rare for the central bank governor to make such forecasts and is the first time that Mr. Shirakawa officially admitted the likelihood that the economy may shrink in the first two quarters of the year, in line with many private-sector economists' predictions." So for those wondering who will take the temporary lead in money printing in the brief period between QE2 and QE3, look no more: "given high uncertainties surrounding the Japanese economy, many analysts expect Japan's central bank to be eventually forced to take additional easing steps." And just how much money printing are we talking here? "The central bank currently buys ¥1.8 trillion of long-term JGBs every
month from financial firms as part of its regular market operations. The bank's hands are tied by the so-called banknote rule, which
limits long-term JGB buying to the amount of banknotes in circulation.
But the central bank still has capacity to purchase around ¥20 trillion
of long-term bonds, according to the central bank's latest account data." In other words, lots.

Is Canada's largest pension fund manager building a future on solid foundations? You bet it is...

One of the key news from the past week was that Chinese FX reserves passed a record $3 trillion for the first time, a surge of $200 billion in the first quarter alone. And with the bulk of that in dollar, it is not surprising that the recently collapse in the dollar has forced more posturing out of both the PBoC and SAFE (the State Administration of Foreign Exchange). In comments published Tuesday, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China said that China's huge stockpile of foreign exchange
reserves have become excessive and the government
must diversify investments using the reserves. "Foreign exchange reserves have exceeded our
country's rational demand, and too much accumulation has caused
excessive liquidity in our markets, adding to the pressure of the
central bank's sterilization." That this is a not so subtle hint aimed at the dollar was confirmed earlier today by SAFE which said that the US government should take responsible measures
to protect the interests of investor. "U.S. Treasuries reflect the credit of the US government and are an important investment product for domestic and international institutional investors," the ministry said in a statement carried today on SAFE's website. "We hope the U.S. government takes responsible measures to protect investor interests." Alas, with the US administration solely focused on making confetti out of the US currency, we hope that China is not holding its breath too long. On the other hand, should the DXY take out its 2009 lows, all bets will surely be off and only another market collapse will be able to generate a potential flight to safety in the dollar. In the meantime, both gold and silver continue to benefit, and the only thing that appears to be able to drag down precious metals at this point is a wholesale margin call invoking cross asset liquidation.

Some thoughts on active management from Neil Petroff, Ontario Teachers' CIO...

Self-dealing, conflicts of interest, favoritism and arguably fraudulent conduct are not unique to the treatment of auction rate securities during the economic collapse of 2008, for these qualities can be found in everything the Fed touches. But ARSs are one blatant example hardly anyone talks about.

When evaluating a money manager, what's more important, process or performance? Are hedge funds that sell premium (short vol) better than ones that buy premium (long vol)?