Quote from waggie945:
Most floor traders and upstairs traders that trade corn, soybeans, milk, unleaded gasoline, natural gas, crude oil, etc do not have the means to DELIVER the actual commodity.
I believe that ENRON did.
That's the difference, and I'm amazed that some of you can't see this very significant difference. But then again, this is ET!
:eek:
Waggie, I hate to break this to you, I actually had friends that worked at Enron and traded there. So maybe I know more about this then you do. Most of these guys were really really smart kids out of college with quant backgrounds with 150 IQ's that worked on a trading desk. These kids designed very elaborate and complicated derivative models and their job, like at any other derivative desk, was to make money. They all got a nice salary, and a bonus that was tied to performance.
These guys were smart, trust me. One of my friends that went to work there got offers from D.E shaw, Susquehanna, and SAC. He turned them all down to work with some of the brightest derivatives guys on the streets, the boys at Enron.
You need to get away from this fantasy world where the Evil Enron is like Dr. Evil from Austin Powers holding the world hostage unless he gets 100 gazzilion dollars. I'm afraid reality is not quite as sexy, or funny, as that.
Rather Waggie, Enron had thousands of traders, many of who never spoke to the other various departments and were all working on different projects. The fact of the matter is, Waggie they were good traders. They made a lot of money. And guess what, all those guys are now working for Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Susquehanna, and various hedge funds now.
If you were trading at Enron, you would have done the same thing. Don't politicize this Waggie, this is about trading. And these guys make money. You know Waggie, not everybody tick f*cks the 10 year note for a living.