Saw this in another thread:
this little gem from fleck tonight.
Reflecting on the recent news, I have been struck by the prominence of manialike psychology and behavior. That folks have chosen to live in a time warp seems particularly clear from the report that margin debt at NASD-member firms climbed to $27.977 billion as of this past July. To put that number in perspective, it was only $21.403 billion in March 2000, and about $6.481 billion at the beginning of 2003.
Wondering if people think this is primarily because the players who remain in the trading game, the vast majority of the joe-blow-retail-players that is, got used to trading size with their fat accounts in the pig days of the bubble, but now find themselves with far less money, after 3 years of losses, and needing to trade even more size, due to lower prices, lower volatility, and their lower capital (ground they have to make up mentality)...therefore they are Margined to the Max....this a viable theory or is there probably a lot more behind it?
this little gem from fleck tonight.
Reflecting on the recent news, I have been struck by the prominence of manialike psychology and behavior. That folks have chosen to live in a time warp seems particularly clear from the report that margin debt at NASD-member firms climbed to $27.977 billion as of this past July. To put that number in perspective, it was only $21.403 billion in March 2000, and about $6.481 billion at the beginning of 2003.
Wondering if people think this is primarily because the players who remain in the trading game, the vast majority of the joe-blow-retail-players that is, got used to trading size with their fat accounts in the pig days of the bubble, but now find themselves with far less money, after 3 years of losses, and needing to trade even more size, due to lower prices, lower volatility, and their lower capital (ground they have to make up mentality)...therefore they are Margined to the Max....this a viable theory or is there probably a lot more behind it?
