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SEC Reads Zero Hedge, Launches Crack Down On Activist Hedge Fund "Idea Dinners"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

In the summer of 2014, the biggest activist hedge fund story on anyone's lips was whether Bill Ackman had broken securities laws when he had accumulated a massive $3 bilion stake, or roughly 9.7% of the outstanding stock of Allergan (using leverage via call options), in advance of Valeant's announcement it would launch a hostile offer for Allergan. The punchline: Ackman had secretly collaborated with Valeant management in advance of the material, public announcement which sent Allergan shares soaring and was the primary reason for Ackman's blockbuster year and billions in profits for Pershing Square.

The story came and went (nowhere) because the man who had given Ackman the SEC's tacit blessing that nothing bad would happen to Bill, as well as a green light to proceed with a trade that would land anyone else in prison, was none other than the former head of enforcement at the SEC, now a $5 million a year legal advisor at Kirkland and Ellis, Robert Khuzami (formerly general counsel of serial market manipulator Deutsche Bank). As a result, the SEC's inquiry into whether Ackman had broken insider trading laws was quickly forgotten.

However, aside from Ackman's allegedly criminal trading, there was another, perhaps even more important tangent, one which only Zero Hedge picked up on last summer: the topic of idea dinners among hedge funds, in which in order to mitigate the securities violation, numerous activist hedge funds would collude with each other as a means of limiting their legal exposure, while altogether profiting when one or more of their group went "hostile" on the target du jour.

This is what we said last August, when we asked "Is The SEC Asking These Hedge Funds Why They All Rushed Into Allergan Last Quarter?"

It remains to be seen if frontrunning the general public on collusive, material, non-public information that a strategic would be about to announce a bid for Allergan is indeed "completely lawful", however we do have a question: now that the SEC is formally investigating Ackman for what may be a massive frontrunning scam, is it also looking at all the other hedge funds which reported brand new stakes (some of which also entirely in the form of calls) in Allergan in the second quarter?

 

The reason we ask is that as everyone knows, in order to diffuse the scent of criminality and dilute their culpability, what hedge fund managers, especially of the activist variety, will do nearly all the time ahead of a significant public announcement of a major stake, is to hold an "idea dinner" in which they preannounce to a select group of close friends what they are doing. As such, what ends up happening is that the benefactor of what may be an illegal tip off, or in this case collusion, is not only entity, but numerous, thus making it very difficult for the SEC to isolate just who "leaker zero" was, and who benefited from the information - certainly complicated if the beneficiaries are more than a dozen.

 

Presenting exhibit A: this is the list of hedge funds and prop trading desks that according to Bloomberg (and CapIQ) announced brand new and quite material stakes, in Allergan, after building up a position some time in the second quarter, having no holdings as of the first quarter.

 

 

It goes without saying that the list of "position initiators" is the who's who of Idea Dinner participants with names such as York, Perry, Mason, Och Ziff, Eton Park, Viking, and so on.

 

So, to recap: if the SEC is indeed serious about getting to the bottom of the Allergan insider-trading scam, is it also looking into just how these hedge funds decided to buy into Allergan in a quarter in which the stock soared on the Valeant/Ackman news?

 

Because while it is perfectly legal if these funds did their homework and rather "mysteriously" all decided to buy into the stock at the same time, or put on M&A arbs after the hostile bid announcement, one wonders just how legal it would be if one or more of these investors only bought AGN stock after getting a "sure thing" tip from Ackman that he was about to go activist on Allergan with Valeant money, something which is certainly illegal.

 

All that said, we aren't holding our breath on the SEC actually doing its job for once, and certainly not before Pershing Square goes public. After all can't hinder "capital formation" in these here unrigged markets.

And so, 10 months later, our observations are once again proven prophetic... That, or the SEC reads this "fringe" website religiously for clues how to do its job, because as the WSJ reports the SEC has answered our question, and yes: the  SEC is finally asking not only "these" hedge funds why they all rushed into Allergan (see above), but into every other collusive activist take out target.

According to the WSJ, the SEC is investigating "whether some activist investors teamed up to target companies without disclosing their alliances, potentially in violation of federal securities rules, according to people familiar with the matter."

The SEC’s enforcement division has recently opened multiple investigations and sent requests for information to a number of hedge funds, according to some of the people. Neither the names of the funds nor the companies they targeted could immediately be ascertained.

 

As part of a broader effort to promote transparency, the SEC is looking at whether certain investors coordinated their efforts without filing appropriate disclosures. Federal securities regulations require investors who jointly agree to buy, sell or vote securities to disclose those arrangements, and to designate themselves as a group if they together own at least 5% of a company’s stock or are soliciting votes from other shareholders. Such formal, disclosed alliances have included a recent effort by Barington Capital Group LP and Macellum Capital Management LLC to win board seats at retailer Children’s Place Inc. 

The WSJ says that "the issue has taken on greater importance as activist hedge funds, which accumulate stakes in companies and agitate for changes such as stepped up share buybacks and asset sales, have become a major force in corporate America in recent years. Activists sometimes tip potential hedge fund allies to their trading plans, a Wall Street Journal investigation found last year. The practice isn’t illegal as long as they don’t coordinate their trades."

Unfortunately for said activist hedge funds, it is impossible to play dumb when virtually all of them decided to take stakes in Allergan in the same quarter as Ackman was building up his massive stake. The punchline: they could and would have only done that if they knew there was a guaranteed bullish catalyst imminent. Such as Valeant announcing a hostile bid for Allergan, a Valeant which was collaborating with the biggest activist hedge fund in the US currently, Pershing Square.

Surprisingly, until recently the SEC, perpetually clueless and corrupt, likened doing its job to cooking.

Michele Anderson, who heads the SEC’s office of mergers and acquisitions, said at a conference in March that changing the regulations on activist disclosures has proved to be “like peeling an onion,” where efforts to tackle one issue simply reveal another.

So, because it is difficult, it is best to not do your job at all, eh SEC?

But then something appears to have changed.

In a sign of the SEC’s new focus on the issue, the agency in March sent a letter to activist fund Bulldog Investors LLC about its campaign for board seats at Stewart Information Services Corp. , a provider of title insurance. The SEC asked whether Bulldog had any “agreements or understandings” with Foundation Asset Management LP, another fund that had run its own proxy fight at the company.

 

Bulldog co-founder Phil Goldstein said in an interview that the funds never made any agreement about trading or voting shares. Scrutiny from the SEC could chill legal discussions between investors, he said, adding that it isn’t surprising that underperforming companies would draw interest from several activists.

This is how the Bulldog guy justified collusive activity between activists:

“If you go to a Grateful Dead concert, you’re going to find a lot of Grateful Dead fans,” he said. “They’re not a group. They just like the same music.”

What he left out is that the result of going to a Grateful Dead concert with other "fans" isn't a multi-million dollar payday for all said "fans" due to illegally collusive behavior.

Which is precisely what activist hedge fund "idea dinners" and other such collusive actions represent.

Apparently, even the most clueless SEC regulator, the one whose patronage of Wall Street means she has to recuse herself of pretty much doing her job entirely, SEC head Mary Jo White spoke up:

“Our role at the SEC is not to determine whether activist campaigns are beneficial or detrimental in any given circumstance,” Ms. White said. “Rather, the agency’s central focus is making sure that shareholders are provided with the information they need and that all play by the rules.”

Rules.

Funny. The only rule is when the activist community bribes the SEC to make sure this latest "investigation" goes away, to make sure there is no paper trail. Otherwise, the mere suggestion that the next hedge fund idea dinner may be bugged by an SEC mole will mean that in the coming years "activist" alpha, which in the past few years was the only "strategy" outperforming the market, will promptly disintegrate just like the concept of "fair and efficient" capital markets in a rigged, centrally-planned world disintegrated years ago alongside with retail interest in it.

 

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Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:18 | 6170459 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

Oh yeah?

FUCK YOU SEC!!!

:)

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:37 | 6170507 max2205
max2205's picture

cartel 

 

Did I miss the porn links?

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 21:23 | 6170588 tmosley
tmosley's picture

Allergan is full of idiots.  They should have bought my company, which had an antimicrobial technology the likes of which the world has never seen, and applied it across ALL of their medical devices, and sold the rights to industrial uses to places like DOW for their industrial uses for ten times what they paid for it.

But they are fucking idiots who don't know a good deal or an amazing technology when they see it.  Now I sit, with teeth protected from all decay for the rest of eternity, and a small stockpile of bandages that block 100% of infection beneath, knowing that my efforts were for little more than my own partial protection.

God. Damn. It.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 22:01 | 6170642 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

You'll heal easliy post-apacalypse

:)

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 06:50 | 6171210 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

George Carlin was right.  It IS a big club- bigger than I thought.  But I'm still not in it.

Congrats to the Tylers on this one.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 07:14 | 6171235 mvsjcl
mvsjcl's picture

12th company on that list, Senator Investment, partly owned by Blackstone, who provided seed money at their inception in 2008, is run by two people, one of whom is Doug Silverman, their head of "event-driven investment," which strikes me as an apt euphemism for "insider trading."

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 09:55 | 6171425 MeetTozter
MeetTozter's picture

This SEC "investigation" smells like they are just submitting their Net 365 SEC sales commision invoice...

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 22:40 | 6170712 palmereldritch
palmereldritch's picture

Ag FTW

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 00:14 | 6170859 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

Bear in mind that the last time the SEC was going to do something to prosecute evil-doers (like ENRON, et.al.), all the records were mysteriously destoyed in the unfortunate accident regarding WTC7 (on 9/11/2001).

As far as 'Idea Dinners' are concerned, I am still looking for a recipe that includes 'Ag'. The closest that I have found includes Rice-A-Roni pasta from Kalifornia (THE 'GOLDEN STATE').

You posted from a fucking 'I-Phone', didn't you?

 

 

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 03:58 | 6171059 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

not exigence, by any chance?

 

friend of a friend said they were the dumbest smart people he'd ever met.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 03:58 | 6171060 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

not exigence, by any chance?

 

friend of a friend said they were the dumbest smart people he'd ever met.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 10:23 | 6171457 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

Tmosely, your product sounds like it has the potential to reduce the size of the sickcare industry by 90%. How do you expect that industry to make gargantuan economy-strangling profits if you are preventing/healing so much disease?

They are less stupid, and more venal, than you think.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 06:59 | 6171198 olenumbersix
olenumbersix's picture

In an unrelated story the founder, and driving force behind the activist web site "Zero Hedge " committed suicide today by jumping off a 10 story building, nail gunning himself, running himself over with a bus, and then driving out to a remote location to die (again) in a tragic "accident" while hunting unicorns with former vice president Dick (the head) Cheney.  Mr. Cheney was quoted as saying "fucking got ya!" after "accidently" shooting a Mr. Tyler Durdin in the face. It should be noted that while this "accident" was truely tragic, it had nothing to do with the "ratting out of hedge fund billionares". The dow, rose 1000 points in a "half m-assed salute" to Mr. Durdin upon hearing the news. I.E watch your back.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:59 | 6170552 takeaction
takeaction's picture

Hey SEC...how about you do something about the metals manipulation, the Fed buying stocks/bonds to prop the market...cough cough Belgium... and while your at it...how about exposing the entire FUCKING CASINO.  Because the blood is on your hands and many others when this shit hits the fan. And when it hits...I feel it will be fast and out of control real quick.  Ya ready??

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 22:20 | 6170677 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

Ask yourself what is cheaper, easier or more profitable for the SEC: to do their job and piss off their future employers and biggest source of bribes, or to take out sites like ZeroHedge? The squeaky wheel doesn't get the grease today, it get's the axe. The SEC wouldn't think twice about killing or imprisoning it's own whistleblowers. ZeroHedge would be nothing for them to squash.

I honestly wonder why ZeroHedge is even allowed to exist by the feds. It has to be an easy target for the sick, psychopathic people that run federal agencies like the SEC. They are obviously above the law just like their cronies in the markets, so there would be no legal ramifications. Not like the DoJ would touch them anyway. I wouldn't expect the SEC to get their hands dirty directly - that's for some other Stazi fed agency they would send out as chore-boys.

Don't get me wrong - I would be especially pissed if ZH disappeared. It just doesn't make sense that the psychopaths in .gov haven't acted. I mean.... what - are they waiting for things to get any worse before they start hitting the kill switches? I suppose ZH does ultimately serve a purpose for them now though: what better way to populate the 'red line' crowd headed for the ovens than to just scrape ZH logs!

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 00:31 | 6170884 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

Frankly, you're being too fucking pessemistic.

YOU are assuming that ALL the IDIOTS who reside in HAIFA and ALEXANDRIA are somehow 'edumacated' as to the REALITY and TRUTH of the 'situation' (as they are told to be).

'TMI' applies to the WHOLE sphere (INCLUDING those who 'scrape' web-logs).

They WISH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1B_pZC8aWU

CHIN UP, LADDIE!

 

 

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 02:12 | 6170979 gonetogalt
gonetogalt's picture

Well, since the servers were moved to Switzerland, and the site was bought (I think) by Rupert Murdoch, there's only one offlimit subject, namely the Cheesepopes. 

(His name was Francis Sawyer)

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 02:11 | 6170975 dark pools of soros
dark pools of soros's picture

yo guys..  ZH is the Entertainment Weekly of the sociopaths..  it is basically their industry journal and to be on here isn't 'shaming' or 'outting' them at all.  it is like a toast for the top of vampires since they already knew since they were little rich brats that they were going to get away with everything 

ZH has been around for damn near 6 years!!!   ain't NOTHING gonna change folks!

 

keep waving your pitchforks on your breaks in the fields

 

 

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 03:59 | 6171061 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

The SEC isn't full of sociopaths, they're just cunt.

 

I worked for sociopaths.  Oddly - most aren't particularly greedy or dishonest.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 07:23 | 6171255 Slomotrainwreck
Slomotrainwreck's picture

Oddly, Sociopath - a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

 

 

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 08:20 | 6171301 JoeSoMD
JoeSoMD's picture

ZH was recently blocked by my employer.  No explanation given.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 09:27 | 6171387 Fun Facts
Fun Facts's picture

The SEC is employed by the bankster cartel to legitimize their crimes.

The SEC is completely, totally, 100 percent corrupt.

In other words...

The SEC is part of the problem.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:21 | 6170466 Arrowflinger
Arrowflinger's picture

Zero Hedge and Porn Hub are the SEC's go-to sites.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 21:06 | 6170564 Bunga Bunga
Bunga Bunga's picture

Porn on zerohedge, you can't top that!

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 06:49 | 6171208 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Combine into one site:  Porn Hedge.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:24 | 6170475 q99x2
q99x2's picture

What the SEC is doing is collecting money from the ones that have it. Nobody is safe at this point except those that control the state.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:44 | 6170521 AlaricBalth
AlaricBalth's picture

Collecting money from the ones that benefited from the largesse that the government granted them through QE and the biggest asset bubble since the tulip mania craze. All the government is doing is taking back a small portion of what was given. Just like the rake in a poker house.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:25 | 6170478 B2u
B2u's picture

SEC?  Stupid Enforcement Cunts?

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:30 | 6170488 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

 

http://www.jewishjournal.com/los_angeles/article/sec_charges_l.a._jewish...

 

Unlike Caramadre, Horowitz is not facing criminal charges. Yaris said that he’s seen a draft of the SEC complaint against Horowitz, although his client hasn’t yet been served. When, and if, that does happen, a judge will have 300 days in which to hear the case. The decision can also be appealed, first to the SEC and later to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

 

See, when an Italian does it, its the mafia, its a crime... but...

 

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 21:19 | 6170583 tarabel
tarabel's picture

 

 

Let me put on my "Counterpunch" brainwave reducifying machine and see if I can grasp your real thoughts on this matter.

It's coming in now...

See, when it's done to Italian victims, it's a crime.

When it's done to Jewish victims, it's not a crime.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 23:02 | 6170749 besnook
besnook's picture

you know tara, you don't hide very well.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 00:57 | 6170914 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

Let me put on my Ashkenazim brainwave Khazarim machine and see if I can grasp your true location and affiliations in this matter.

SEE, when it's done to Irish, it's a 'crime', but when it's done to SCOTTISH, it ISN'T.

I'll have to go back to WRH and reference 'the myth of the six million', I suppose, Tara.

A KIKE would smell like a KIKE (by any other name)... but the COMMUNIST MANIFESTO would smell SO SWEET...

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 04:10 | 6171015 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

I suspect that what upsets you most about me, apart from adhering to statements of fact you can't disprove, is that here I am, a goy, and I'm significantly more intelligent than you.  And I am far better informed, and presumptively more fun at parties.

That aside, your comment is inane, even for you.  Of course, you lurk and downvote things without reading them, i.e as soon as they appear, giving away yur lack of consideration...to the extent one has to wonder if you are paid to do it, or if you just have nothing going on.  Either way, had you bothered to read the article, and especially if you read the embedded link to the story on the Italian, what would have been abundantly clear, and should have been anyway, is that I'm claiming someone was not punished because, unlike the Italian Catholic whose hands seem much cleaner, they were Jewish.  There's no reason for there to be no criminal investigation apart from powerful friends. 

Hence your comments, desperate to, in essence, cry "anti-Semite" at me  {as if so doing will make intelligent, decent people believe discussions of Jewish power and influence or of Israeli war crimes and societal racism is simply irrational hatred of all things Jewish - but by all means, keep trying, Tarabel} rather than coherently address a claim or inference.

 

I would, to spell this out to you, like to see people punished for defrauding anybody - you may really lack the honesty of mind to understand that being critical of Israel and disproportionate Jewish and power is not, necessarily, or probably even usually, a mere subset of some global, irrational hatred for all Jewish people. 

Actual group hate [as you peddle quite often, but since you hate only brown undermenchen, you do not process your beliefs and feelings as racist] is not just a moral failing.  Indeed, there are no moral phenomena at all, only a moral interpretation of phenomena  {Nietzsche} It is a logical failing, a fallacy.  I don't know if someone is a cunt or not until they open their mouths.  Being told they are Jewish or Israeli tells me very little about them. 

Most of this is over your head. You have been brainwashed in a number of ways and will probably live your life that way - self concept of battling hate as you promote it, working for peace as you sabotage any chance of it, seeing a world that hates you but not seeing how you view the [non-Jewish] world with hate.

 

Pity, but not my problem.

 

 

Having had a strange and varied academic, military, professional, and sexual career, I note that part of this involved [and was very near] Wall Street, and not in a trading capacity, but, if you will, an investigatory and research capacity - quite low on the totem pole, but with unusual access to documents, emails, even phone calls.  It was discovered that I was better than even the Harvard and Yale types who'd never been in more danger than losing a race on the Charles.

 I'd remind you of the strangeness of the remark by Bernie Madoff's wife, learning of his arrest, in which she blamed "The Gentiles."   Jeezus, Tarabel, the Old Testament/Torah is like an acid trip of violence, xenophobia, racialism, superrstition, myth and stupidity - but to actually have it as part of your identity, to believe "The Creator" inspired and imparted it to your racial kin alone, and to have that racial kinship be largely, demonstrably false...

 

What a mind fuck, Tarabel.  They actually raped and abused your mind.  I think you know it.  Try some ecstasy and ask yourself....

I'm saying, given all the above, the Jewish guy isn't being criminally prosecuted, as often happens, because he's a Jew with powerful connects.  The Italian guy gets the approbrium of the State, and the "mafia" whispers though I'm sure he's the furthest thing, and greedy, but not an outright criminal.  The Jewish network, and those who fear crossing it, routinely FTP the wealthy, and that often includes, of course Jews engaged in financial fuckery   [ftp  =  failure to prosecute].

Nothing I wrote, or which could be taken as implied, had to do with not wishing to see justice for victims if they were Jewish.  The entire thrust was lack of prosecution...  to read the link would also evoke sympathy, especial sympathy, for this kind of victim of this kind of fraud - regardless of their peculiar cherished myths or quirks of their haplotypes...

So, basically, you went in a direction that made no sense.  You should have asked me to prove that there's this pattern of Jewish people being given only the civil investigation threat, mentioned Hitler once or twice, then later, failed to read anything I provided and maybe claim that none are reliable sources.

You fucked up, Tarabel - they simply didn't prepare you for the likes of me in troll school.  I genuinely don't hate you, or any 'group' and genuinely care about the truth.

Gandhi, btw was right, Tarabel - there is no g0d higher than TRUTH. 

 

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.  [George Orwell] ...

... "While reading the Pentateuch, I am filled with indignation, pity and horror. Nothing can be sadder than the history of the starved and frightened wretches who wandered over the desolate crags and sands of wilderness and desert, the prey of famine, sword, and plague. Ignorant and superstitious to the last degree, governed by falsehood, plundered by hypocrisy, they were the sport of priests, and the food of fear. God was their greatest enemy, and death their only friend. It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable, hateful, and arrogant being, than the Jewish god. He is without a redeeming feature. In the mythology of the world he has no parallel. He, only, is never touched by agony and tears. He delights only in blood and pain. Human affections are naught to him. He cares neither for love nor music, beauty nor joy. A false friend, an unjust judge, a braggart, hypocrite, and tyrant, sincere in hatred, jealous, vain, and revengeful, false in promise, honest in curse, suspicious, ignorant, and changeable, infamous and hideous:—such is the God of the Pentateuch.” - - Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses

 

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 08:48 | 6171335 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

 

 

 

 "Indeed, there are no moral phenomena at all, only a moral interpretation of phenomena  {Nietzsche} "


If there is no moral phenomena, i.e., humans acting either in the right or in the wrong, then what is it exactly that is being interpreted?


If it is the interpretation itself that is called moral or immoral, then this is a contradiction in terms since morality is concerned with the realm of action not thought. 

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:31 | 6170490 new game
new game's picture

LOL, they read zh, ha...

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:35 | 6170501 SillySalesmanQu...
SillySalesmanQuestion's picture

I'm truly shocked that they can read anything other than the title, actors/ actresses names and credits of a porn movie...

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 00:42 | 6170896 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

Silverstein Does New York!

(Subtitle: 'Pull It!')

Starring Ron 'Jeremy' Holmes as 'the guy who fucks everything'.

(Animation by Buena Vista, a division of Disney Corporation)

 

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 08:26 | 6171307 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

Complete with the '5 Dancing Israelis'?

That would really blow the house down.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 09:32 | 6171393 Ward cleaver
Ward cleaver's picture

Who would have thunk it, a bunch of "Canadian" guys in an unregulated industry, colluding to enrich themselves. Shocking

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:32 | 6170494 Normalcy Bias
Normalcy Bias's picture

The 'markets' have become a complete farce. I've seen blatant manipulation in a particular stock all week. There IS NO market policeman anymore...

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:49 | 6170533 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

It's just Hedge Fund collusion.  Move along!

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:32 | 6170496 Luckhasit
Luckhasit's picture

Well, it seems blocking the sites at work doesn't work (ha!) and the various employees just read the blog at home. 

Why even bother, we all know the SEC ain't gonna find shit.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:38 | 6170510 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

ot some but anyone read this latest from Krugman?

Why Am I A Keynesian?


Sat, 06/06/2015 - 21:13 | 6170578 nmewn
nmewn's picture

"And while it’s true that there was limited direct evidence on the effects of fiscal policy 6 or 7 years ago, there’s now a lot, and it’s very supportive of a Keynesian view."

The man is and has always been a demented fascist. Corporate executive compensation via stawks has never been higher because of "Keynesian fiscal policy", EBT and all forms of welfare usage has never been higher and average worker wages are stagnant.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 03:03 | 6171018 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

agreed, and very well said.

I've stopped reading his comments section.  It's just too fucking depressing.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:39 | 6170512 PhilofOz
PhilofOz's picture

ROFLOL!! Nothings going to happen to any of these protected species. The US political, economic and legal system is so corrupt now only a revolution will oust these pack of criminals. They are so confident in themselves now that they do not even care if they are caught out whereas in the past this corruption was swept well under the carpet.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 20:58 | 6170548 CHC
CHC's picture

This makes all the sense in the world.  I come here not to read the articles per se but the comments - very very interesting, chock full of information and yes, even hilarious at times.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 21:08 | 6170567 hedgelessWhoresMan
hedgelessWhoresMan's picture

Nothing to see here, move along now. 

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 21:13 | 6170574 ISEEIT
ISEEIT's picture

HA-HA-HA.....

If this isn't an example of 'the fox guarding the henhouse' then what the f*ck is? 

 

"Hey you can't be criminals...Cause we're the criminals..Only we're allowed to be criminals you f*cking criminals..."

 

 

WTF??

 

Maybe next lord obozo can create a 'media czar' who can investigate all the little leftist/state tit sucking sociopaths who coordinate 'news' stories?

 

This shit is WAY past surreal.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 21:24 | 6170591 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

Doesn't seem fair that the lazy , captured, scum that are SEC should have FREE access to Z/H material when they have to subscribe to shit from the likes of the WSJ.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 21:54 | 6170630 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Tylers, take tomorrow off, refresh.

Thanks, but it ain't gonna resolve on a Sunday.

-- A loyal Reader.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 03:05 | 6171019 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

hey man, half the appeal is the comments to the articles the Tylers post.

 

Strong coffee, hot shower, and 15 or 20 minutes checking the hedge is a morning ritual that has preserved my sanity, as a chorus of cunts have conspired to rob me of it.

 

I also abuse drugs.  Something which, in my humble estimation, is most unfairly maligned due to the transgressions of individuals who lack the intelligence and maturity to properly and safely abuse drugs.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 22:56 | 6170741 holdbuysell
holdbuysell's picture

Wake me up when Dimon, Blankfein, et al are perp walked. Else, it's all kabuki bs.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 01:37 | 6170949 Boxed Merlot
Boxed Merlot's picture

Dimon, Blankfein, et al are perp walked...

 

It'll never happen.  There's a reason for all the lawyers employed in DC / WS / etc.  It's called attorney / client privilege.  Even more sacrosanct than "marriage", (though this is thought by many to be the main motivation for the state to recognize 'same sex' unions), these discussions can never be divulged in a legal proceeding, thereby preventing the introduction of damning evidence.

Pretty cool, huh?

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 22:58 | 6170744 dust to dust
dust to dust's picture

 ZeroHedge the ultimate watchdog. Even the SEC is paying attention although it took twelve months. The SEC better come down hard on these hedge funds. Can't wait for follow up on this story.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 22:59 | 6170745 besnook
besnook's picture

way off. its the damn indians, don't you know.

Sat, 06/06/2015 - 23:32 | 6170791 Livermore Legend
Livermore Legend's picture

For those Who Have Been Paying Attention, Those Who Are Paying Attention, and Posterity:

The SEC should be ABOLISHED.

PARTICIPANTS of ALL STRIPES are FULLY RESPONSIBILE for their Own Capital.

The Government has NO business INTERPOSING itself thereto, NOR has any FIDUCIARY OR CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY to "PROTECT" any PARTICIPANT.

Furthermore, ALL STATUTES AND REGULATIONS PROSCRIBING "INSIDER TRADING" are UNCONSTITUTIONAL, as a violation of EXPRESSION under the FIRST AMENDMENT, among other Legal Infirmities.

The POSSESSION and USE of KNOWLEDGE in a CAPITALISTIC EXCHANGE cannot aggrieve the STATE, thus there is NO HARM to the STATE.

NOR is there ANY HARM to other PARTICIPANTS because SUBJECTIVITY EQUALIZES ANY SUCH "INSIDE" KNOWLEDGE.

This is easily PROVED:

Imagine you KNEW on November 20, 1963, that JFK was to be killed.

The ULTIMATE "INSIDE INFORMATION".

You POSITION HEAVILY SHORT 10-1 on this "INSIDE INFORMATION".

You would have WIPED OUT.

You See, it is NOT the INFORMATION, INSIDE or OTHERWISE, but rather the REACTION.

"SUBJECTIVITY" AT ALL TIMES AND ALL PLACES GOVERNS REACTION.

The above example is just one ad infinitum, and SIMPLE LOGIC.

Therefore, "INSIDER TRADING/KNOWLEDGE"  cannot constitute a CRIME either within the CONSTITUTIONAL POWER of the GOVERNMENT, or as a CRIME AGAINST PERSONS, of which the GOVERNMENT CAN PROSCRIBE CONDUCT.

Effectively this CRIMINALIZES "SPECULATION" on Outcomes, the QUINTESSENCE OF MARKETS themselves.

Many so-called "LIBERTARIANS" and others, want LESS GOVERNMENT but in MARKETS want and EXPECT the GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT their "SPECULATION".

"INVESTOR" is a term for those who FAIL TO UNDERSTAND or DENY that they are in fact "SPECULATORS".

For:

ANY APPLICTION OF CAPITAL of which the OUTCOME is based on SUBJECTIVITY is indeed a "SPECULATION".

These issues just have Not Yet been Properly Presented to the US Supreme Court.

These STATUTES and their enabling REGULATIONS are CONSTITUTIONALLY INFIRM.

Myself, I take POSITION Purely on TIME, PRICE and VOLUME.

Those are NOT SUBJECTIVE but rather FACTS, of which ANY MANIPULATION OF ANY KIND is included therein, thus NEUTRALIZING ALL SUCH ACTS, regardless of ACT or PARTY.

Thus ANY PARTICIPANT who takes POSITION otherwise, by their OWN FREE WILL has CHOSEN TO SPECULATE and must accept the CONSEQUENCES GOOD or BAD, and can neither be heard to COMPLAIN or look to GOVERNMENT to PROTECT them.

If you don't KNOW WHAT POSITION TO TAKE, don't PLAY THE GAME.

When you do, ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY.

 

 

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 00:02 | 6170841 R19
R19's picture

How much capital do you manage?  Inside information has no value - lol of the fucking millenia.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 12:08 | 6171617 TwelveOhOne
TwelveOhOne's picture

Seems to manage a ton of capital.  Boldly, as well.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 03:09 | 6171022 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture
  • I would have gone with the example of knowing about Napoleon's defeat ahead of everone else.
  • Oh yeah, and not used the caps and bold.
    • And written something more coherent.
  • Did you have a lot of concussions as a kid?  You write like a guy I know talks, but he has the excuse of having been in humvees that hit IEDs twice. 
    • What's your excuse?

 

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 00:02 | 6170843 DipshitMiddleCl...
DipshitMiddleClassWhiteKid's picture

nothing to see here...move along 

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 01:16 | 6170931 Trogdor
Trogdor's picture

.... Aaaaannd still nobody goes to jail. 

The SEC is just pissed that they didn't get their payoffs.  They'll find some wrongdoing, fine some people, count their payoff - and the scum of Wall Street and DC will go back to what they do best:  Committing egregious crimes every minute of every day they're drawing breath.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 04:29 | 6171084 Kina
Kina's picture

Tip off for the SEC.

 

I believe there is a 14 year old in his mom's basement manipulating the jellybean futures at his local store.

Please arrest and extradite him to the USA, solitary confinment and 10 years prison.

We know its the sort of thing you like to do.

 

Waiting for new law banning mom's basements globally by global US policeman.

 

Now if Corzine had been working from his mom's basement he would be doing 20 years now.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 04:39 | 6171097 Youri Carma
Youri Carma's picture

Soon all waiter jobs will be taken by the NSA.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 08:39 | 6171316 falak pema
falak pema's picture

Liz Warren is right in taking the SEC and its top boss woman thru the wringer! 

She is the only senator that speaks and acts according to a sound ethical foundation.

Her acts speak for themselves. (Not like those shills who say they are libertarians and do nothing to prove it).

Ho hummers and hand wringers; some even pretend to be swingers but are in fact clingers to girls in strings.

What a binge of lolly pop suckers.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 08:42 | 6171327 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

falak, really? warren? I know you are smart (see many a post by you)..putting your faith in an American Pol has never been a winning position.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 09:30 | 6171375 VisionQuest
VisionQuest's picture

I believe it is no longer possible to effectively address "specific issues" in any area of U.S. federal bureaucracy. FEDGOV bureaucracy is too big to control. Everybody knows it but the tipping point of doing something about it has not arrived. A thousand years of English-speaking history says Wash Day always comes and everything comes out on Wash Day.

When LBJ made his "Great Society" speech at the University of Michigan on May 22nd 1964, every Communist, Progressive, Fabian, Socialist, Marxist and U.S. Democrat on planet earth knew the fix was really in: Washington D.C. would be transformed.

President John F Kennedy had issued ExecOrder #10988 in January of 1962 which allowed Federal Government employees to bargain collectively. When LBJ embarked the Great Society, Big Labor & Big Government joined forces. Big Labor lawyers soon found "legal arguments" and sympathetic judges to establish "precedent" for extending collective bargaining rights down to the local level. AFSCME is now the biggest constituency under the AFLCIO umbrella.

FEDGOV is a closed shop and they protect their own. The entire bureaucratic structure of U.S. government is corrupt. Reformation of the criminal bureaucracy starts with a wrecking ball.

Do you know about Federal News Radio? Here's a listing of their target audience: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=59

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 13:17 | 6171749 lu86cky
lu86cky's picture
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”

 

- Adam Smith

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 14:16 | 6171943 R19
R19's picture

Whatever the outcome I wish the financial media, especially Bloomberg, would quit giving such a massive stage for Ackman to pound the table on his positions.

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 14:52 | 6172059 dizzyfingers
Sun, 06/07/2015 - 17:10 | 6172396 Clowns on Acid
Clowns on Acid's picture

"And don't you Hedge Funds ever do that again !"

"Let me know when you have a job opening."

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 18:37 | 6172613 silverstud
silverstud's picture

The SEC's moral acronym is FIFA

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