O Little Tail Of Downside Risk

Continuing our romp through the world of financially-revised, centrally-planned Christmas carol cheer, here is Citi's Matt King with his remix of O Little Town Of Bethlehem.

O little tail of downside risk

O little tail of downside risk
How still we see thee lie!
Awash with deep and dreamless greeks
The spreadsheets cannot lie.
Yet in thy dark cells shineth
The markets’ scope for fright
The hopes and fears of traders’ years
Are met in thee tonight.

For selling vol this rangebound year
Has seldom gone astray.
With bears asleep, the hedgers keep
Being killed by time decay.
And central banks encourage
The reckless search for yield
They’ve said they’ll do whate’er it takes –
No wonder risk appeals.

How casually, how frighteningly
The risks are now dismissed.
Spain’s fall to junk, Greek exit
The looming fiscal cliff.
For recent years do demonstrate
The power of QE.
What matters sovereign solvency
When you have OMT?

But history says when vol is low
There lies complacency.
The worldly wise should use this time
To buy convexity.
For if crisis strikes, then all assume
The powers will intervene
But where there is consensus
There tail risk lurks unseen!

Comments

[GMadScientist]

Playing convexity with rates nailed to the fucking floor?! LOL

Iron Butterflies Fan Out!

[Muppet Pimp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIVe-rZBcm4

[vast-dom]

merry xmas and meet the REAL santa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D27we2eySI

the REAL ex prez:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=7psNOxRE-HA&NR=1

[nope-1004]

Sorry for OT.  For Trav and all the other less educated that don't understand monetary metals, this interview is VERY enlightening.  From King World News today:

http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2012/12/22_Andrew_Maguire.html

[Spirit Of Truth]

Let's not leave out the potential for World War Three on that little tail:

http://thespiritoftruth.blogspot.com/2012/12/whats-really-going-on-in-sy...

[ball-and-chain]

Nice poem.

I'm a big fan of poetry.

Europe has no hope of staying together.

This is the year when the shit hits the fan.

You might even see NATO tanks rolling into some of the PIIGS as the thieves try to keep the Ponzi scheme going.

http://www.angrysinner.blogspot.kr/2012/12/yesterday-i-walked-five-miles-to-my.html

[Atomizer]

Just another Town Hall FUCK FEST hosted by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Membership privileges assists in keeping countries glamorized into modern casino indentured servitude.

[Miss Expectations]

This is way better than the Hanukkah song, the Kwanzaa song and a Mexican song that we got at my son's holiday concert.  (Not one Christmas carol, not one).

[GMadScientist]

Turn on any radio! Your 200 year head start wasn't enough?

"Do they know it's Christmastime at allllll?"

Yes, they know, keep the record on stand-by, please!

[q99x2]

I'm back working in the wife's rafters this weekend. Bah Humbug. FU Bernanke.

[orangegeek]

2013 is going to be interesting.  These US markets have been gamed up about as far as they will go.

http://bullandbearmash.com/chart/sp500-weekly-117-macd-shows-bearish/

At one point in history, a market represented an organization's current financial situation and its future potential.  Let's see what the "Q4 results" Santa brings us.

[SmoothCoolSmoke]

The PPT showed all who is boss Friday.  In a free market, the Dow would have been down 500-800 on Boehner's boner.

[Monedas]

How many sand niggers* does it take to screw a camel ?     Answer:   3      One to "grab the tail" and two to rotate the step ladder !           *Monedas' picturesque term for the denizens of the sandy regions of Northern Afrika and the Near East !