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Just how it works here. You have pressure from all different groups and special interests pushing and pulling different directions. Then you have the upcoming election so they are all trying to posture for the best way to keep/get power. In the old days, they would all just put out some BS...

Looks like a hedge. Huh? Ripples? Seriously?

you forgot to mention cell phones...yes that's right, I heard a commercial on the radio advertising free, gov provided cell phones/minutes. edit: I just realized they are also paying for the advertising to give out the free phones/minutes

Not sure if you're joking or not but here goes: since it's clear that the "rich" (i.e. bastards making over $115k) pay income tax, your little argument can be re-worded: the rich steal from the poor, therefore the rich steal from the poor First you need to explain how the 14 million...

On a related note: The top 10% consists of about 14 million people. They pay 70% of total income tax ... The bottom 50% consists of about 70 million people. They pay 2.70% of total income tax ... Except for a few thousand plutocrats who have political connections and the...

This gunning for your stops thing is a bunch of BS imo. Think of how many contracts someone would have to trade to push the market into a stop. Now think how big the size of that stop probably is. Why would anyone trade 100s or 1000s of lots to trigger a 1,2,3 etc lot stop? Is there anyone...

Delta? And what happens to the delta when it moves against you? Which way does it go? And what about the rate-of-change of the rate-of-change of the delta? What about the sensitivity to a change in volatility?

By that standard we'd have to stop all forms of marketing, for pretty much everything. All ads promote some type of unrealistic expectation; there's a fine line between marketing and fraud. I just don't think you can protect people from themselves. Sure, if someone is doing something...

Honestly, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.(and this is coming from someone who's biggest trade has been long-gold for the last 6 years) It's the type of market that could be down 100 in a day or 300+ in a week. Eventually the bull market will end, and it will end with a bang...

The Federal Reserve system has always been part cartel, part central planning agency. That's a good framework for studying the history of the institution imo. It's also why the right and left are both wrong when they criticize or support it. Really the two mandates are: 1) protect the large...

Ideology aside, you could have temporarily nationalized the biggest offenders, fired all the management, kill the equity, restructure the debt, write down the bad assets and recapitalize, then re-privatize. Then you don't lose the jobs; let the management and equity holders fail; keep the bad...

Maybe he is, but at this point isn't it a moot point? He, as the consummate professional trader, made that trade and claims it was real. So either: 1) he's a good scam artist, a bad trader, and his credulous followers lost quite a bit of money or 2) he's a poor scam artist, a bad trader...

Does that include the Bear Stearns deal that was backstopped by the fed for JPM while he was on the board?

Fair enough, but during the 87' crash some of the index arbs took a big hit and during summer 07' and throughout 08' a number of the big stat arb guys suffered big losses. (although the latter aren't pure arbs) Even the most advanced quant funds can show profit day-after-day for years and...

Agreed, most people can be good winners, a lot tougher to deal with the (multiple) losers.

Yes and no, you would have to break-down the strategy, not just look at the biggest drawdown. Take a guy that started in 2004 selling way OTM options on the equity markets, levered to the max. For three years he may not have had one losing trade and had solid returns. Then 2008 hit...

I think there are a few changes that could be made to lessen the systemic risk of TBTF firms, w/o bailing them out... 1) Require banks, and non-bank financials to hold more capital so firms can't leverage to the point where a %3 drop in their assets wipes them out. This tends to create a...

Total Assets ~ 2.9 Trillion Total Capital ~ 52 Billion Leverage ~ 55-to-1 Lehman was about 30-to-1. The fed can mark those assets however they want though. They would also be bailed-out / fully nationalized if the balance sheet became impaired.

me neither, then they can learn to be calm after their own blow-ups. It's always fascinated me how soo many people think some random guy is going to make them rich. Either: 1) they are unsuccessful and think they just need to find the right mentor, indicator, philosophy etc. or 2) they are...

I empathize with most new traders who take big losses. But when somebody claims to be a pro and has the nerve to charge others money for sharing that "expertise" I have no empathy when they turn a 1-lot into a 320k loss in an orderly market. In fact, I'm happy when it happens because...