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Why is this surprising? Almost all option MMs trade based on theoretical prices, once your ask is below their ask, the automated MM program determines whether the spread still need to be maintained, if not, then it will cancel its ask (not need to make the market), based on the fair-value...

Sorry for the delay, I read SEC's Edgar database almost religiously. http://edgar.sec.gov

Interesting, it depends on how important technology is to your firm, I guess. Can you be a little more specific about the situation (I assume you guys are not comfortable naming the firms), such as whether the prop firm runs its own technology, outsource the technology to a clearing firm...

There are some notable investors that are not on the list, Julian Robertson, for instance. But having the pleasure or displeasure of knowing some of the people mentioned. I actually think Michael Bloomberg have made a far bigger impact in the financial scene, and make far more money too...

It is funny to see people making Alan Greenspan a "saint", and yet he became Fed Chairman, plenty of people were scared that he isn't half as good as Volcker. I remember the bond market had a giant drop after Greenspan was confirmed. I doubt Roach will get the nod, he is widely viewed as...

Quite a few private banking operations use them, as far as I know, JP Morgan Private Bank uses them, US Trust launched a pilot a couple of years ago (before the Schwab buy), and Harris Private Bank piloted as well. This is just in the US, I am not sure about Europe.

Interesting, since there hasn't been any Defenders of Microsoft, I will play the Devil's Advocate (appropriate term, if I were to add). Disclaimer is needed, I started my tech career on a miniVAX and Apollo workstations, so I am personally a Unix-bigot (and I still use Emacs for my own dev)...

It is true that Refco FCM and RCM contributed the same numerical amount of profits, the revenue base is substantially different. According to the S-1 ('04 numbers), Refco FCM has revenues of $940M and profits of $130M, for a profit margin of around 14.5%, Refco Capital Markets has revenues of...

I can't speak for other firms. But I have had a fair bit of insight into SG / FIMAT, SG is certainly not terribly interested in expanding FIMAT, due to the lower margins. FIMAT is not an independent entity like IB (even MAN have the asset management side to worry about), which is why IB is...

Okay, I will bite. I run an automated system that trades mostly futures and options, so I have no idea what equities is like. Furthermore, I use the alternative investment community definition of Sharpe ratio (annualized daily returns divided by annualized stdev). I wrote a fully scale...

106% of the capital still is a good price, it is only around $25m higher than Flowers' bid. It is when the premium get to the 10-15% level that the buyers start to take a second look. There are different reports about the Dubai group, some reports said that Blackstone will be part of the...

Sorry for the lateness, I have been busy with other stuff. The other reason that Abadi's bid is problematic is that he indicated that he wants to buy all operating business of Refco for $1B, no debts, and with all the cash outstanding. I remember reading somewhere that he is talking about...

Just to clarify, I know the person for 15 years, so trust really is not an issue here, even then we both agreed that a "divorce-clause" be put into the formation agreement.

A friend of mine who is a proprietary trader for an ibank and I were just kicking this around the past weekend. However, the structure (LP with managing partners) is so much like a hedge fund that is no different entity-wise. Personally, I prefer partners to have different strengths (contacts...

I haven't been involved in the buy-out of a clearing firm for a couple of years now, so my statistics maybe foggy. Why people think that Flowers got a "sweet heart" deal I don't understand. Flowers paid 103% of regulatory equity in Refco FCM, which is a good deal, but not a fantastic one...

Thanks for the link. From that newsletter I also looked at the memorandum of understanding between Refco and JC Flowers. I marvel at how beautifully the purchasing memorandum is done, the 2.8% breakup fee and the 20M overbid condition are clearly targeted at preventing any additional...

Well, where do I begin, the whole concept of margin and financing is very simple in the retail range, but can be very complex in the institutional client side. Basically, for retail equity clients, it is Reg-T, straight up, no ifs ands and buts, for retail future clients, it is SPAN, also...

Maybe I am wrong, but the article is very clear about Beeland being a hedge fund, and use the unsecured prime brokerage services provided by Refco. By using Prime brokerage services such as risk based margin calculation, etc, by definition the Beeland account becomes unsecured. Beeland...

It is possible that some individuals would choose to bottom fish, now at $0.65. Keep in mind that not all of the 127 Million shares are floated, only around 20-22 Million shares was floated at the IPO, rest of the shares are subject to the 180 day lock up period. I will go further by saying...

No, you don't own equity shares in the JC Flowers Futures Inc. (or whatever they chose to call it), you own equity shares in Refco Inc, the parent company. The same company that has just entered into chapter 11. The JC Flowers Futures firm is entirely private, with no public shareholders...