Quote from shortie:
This is the ad i got from IB:
"IB Lends at Just 1.25%
While the Fed is lending money at almost zero interest rates, why not take advantage of it through IB? Interactive Brokers will lend up to $566,000 at 1.25% for every $100,000 in a Portfolio Margin4 Securities Trading account. As of 4/5/2010, more than 500 stocks had a dividend yield of 5% or more. "
So, one puts int 100K and get to play with 566K "to buy stocks yielding 5%" 5-1.25=3.75% or more of the "free return" per year. with 5.66 leverage one gets 5.66*3.75%= ~21% - that's a very nice ROI!!
naturally, IB has all kinds of disclaimers about the risks associated with margin, etc. so the people are properly informed. I have no quarrel with IB here. It is not about IB at all. To me, the ad captures the spirit of what's been going on for the last year with all the cheap money floating around: borrow cheap money, load up on stocks, sit out small corrections and reap huge ROI either from stock price appreciation or from dividends.
the behavior has been reinforced by the more than a year of the biggest bull run ever. some day it has to stop or it will get punished. since the interest rates are not going up any time soon, the risky behavior won't stop voluntarily. the punishment will come with a correction sharp enough to hurt many overleveraged bulls.
Quote from shortie:
Euro-Zone Nations Offer $40 Billion to Greece
New York Times - 3 hours ago
By STEPHEN CASTLE BRUSSELS - A financial rescue of the debt-laden Greek economy moved into focus Sunday when the 16 nations that use the euro offered to loan Athens up to â¬30 billion at rates far below what the debt-laden country is paying now.
this must be "sell the news" play on Mon. we could pop up higher on Mon before crashing, but i think the pop-up already happened last week.
Quote from shortie:
could somebody explain to me how a fledgling economy could even hope to grow with gas prices at 2007 level? right now we have 9.7% unemployed. what happens to the gas prices when/if those people get jobs and start driving? what happens to the economic prospects when the gas goes even higher?
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Quote from shortie:
could somebody explain to me how a fledgling economy could even hope to grow with gas prices at 2007 level? right now we have 9.7% unemployed. what happens to the gas prices when/if those people get jobs and start driving? what happens to the economic prospects when the gas goes even higher?
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Quote from shortie:
gas price can easily go up $1 by summer because of the seasonal demand. so we could have gas/oil prices comparable to 2008. :eek:
this must put a dent into the stock market, so why is it going up every day? this is a purely crazy momentum driven rally totally detached from the fundamentals. such rallies are known to have existed. kudos to those who knows when to jump on/off board.