28JAN09:
Q1-09 DOW: 8900
Q2-09 DOW: 7250
Q3-09 DOW: 5810
Q4-09 DOW: 3960
CITI NATIONALIZED
OBAMA GETS SICK 27AUG09:
Mini Crash 21SEP09 Predicted correctly:
Bailout=Bonuses
Demise of Bear Stearns
Demise of Lehman Bros.
Demise of AIG
Subprime would cause problems
Date of 2007 crash
CRAs were to blame
G20 riots were a party
Northern Rock run
Northern Rock Nationalization
HBOS and RBS demise
UBS really was Useless
Excess is no longer acceptable. Cracking down on excess is the new black. Yes, my wings are too large and they need to be clipped so I can run around the farmyard like a headless chicken. This G20 posturing is alas just that. As JK Galbraith says in his best selling book on the Great Depression, the business of non-business was the new black circa 1930 and here we are in the same cycle.
What is a hedge fund? Good question. And what have we done wrong? Good question. We provide between 30 and 60% of the world's liquidity in the stock markets. Good news. We provide love and care to our investors which are often the pensions of the old and charities who care for the uncared for. Good for the world. We are what no one else does and investors, including government agencies, sovereign wealth funds and businesses love our ability to provide a return given their risk profile. Good for capitalism. We are the oil that is keeping most of your in jobs by lubricating the flows of capital and keeping the art market afloat.
Of course the world is turning red. Socialists are the people who put sugar in your petrol because they don't like your car. The regulators are agents of the state, the sugar pourers, the tax paid for business prevention police. So it is not a surprise that they want to slow us down.
So what will we do? Well, we have been playing the game nicely but no more. Nobody has ever defined what a hedge fund is and if governments start to interfere in private pools of capital then we are all doomed. If someone gives me a mandate to invest their money, then this has nothing to do with regulators. If I go to a supermarket and decide to buy some food, I don't expect a regulator to hover over me to make sure I buy appropriate food for my needs and then fine me for buying the wrong type of bread. Oh, I forgot that is what the other FSA does - the Food Standards Agency.
No, we shall go offshore completely. Pools will reside in the Middle East and off exchange trading will make it difficult for the regulators to control our activities. Non listed derivatives came about because the listed stuff were not always fit for purpose. There will always be transactions outside of the norm and when this stops, we shall all be driving trabants and living in depressing concrete buildings drinking Vodka all day long.
Secretive hedge funds will eventually be subject to the same supervisory rules as banks, under a tightening of Britain's system of regulation.
The changes, which will require banks and other lenders to build up their reserves in healthy economic times, could become the basis for international efforts to overhaul regulation at the G20 summit in London on April 2. The moves will be proposed on Wednesday in a report by Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, who will call for an overhaul of the tripartite links between the FSA, the Bank of England and the Treasury.
Fintag says We are the least of their problems. The regulator is the problem. How is it they messed up and get away with it? I employ real people, provide value to the world's economy and get treated like a small child?
ON OSBORNE AVENUE in the village of Southampton, a cozy cedar-sided house peeks out over a modest hedgerow, a coy signifier of means in this storied summer retreat of New York's moneyed classes. A blue real estate broker's sign is planted at the foot of the driveway: the house is up for sale for the fourth time in eight years. Its churning transaction history tells the tale of a dizzying decade. In 2001, it sold for $460,000; two years later, it went for $850,000; and in 2006, after a substantial renovation, it turned over again, fetching $1.65 million. The current owners of the house, a young Manhattan couple, moved on to bigger things after a couple of summers, purchasing a $4 million home south of the Montauk Highway, about a mile closer to the shore. They put the house on Osborne Avenue up for sale again, asking nearly $2.2 million — almost five times the property's market value at the beginning of the decade.
It's 11am on Monday at the Angel branch of Virgin Active in north London. I'm blinking the sweat out of my eyes at the water cooler, looking around at the packed cross-trainers, when it hits me: “Where did all these men come from? Don't they have jobs to go to?”
Well, no, actually. Three months ago, the daytime vibe here was decidedly yummy mummy. Or studenty. Or gay. But in the past few weeks, the place has been besieged by thirty- and fortysomething straight men who have lost their jobs. Estate agents, recruitment consultants, chefs — it's easy to spot them in their threadbare trackies and old T-shirts, complexion transforming from grey to peachy while their self-esteem hits rock bottom....
Fintag says So there I was berating all those unemployed bankers in Starbucks, and they are the ones having the fun.
HEDGE FUND REPLICATION PRODUCT LAUNCHED WITH WEEKLY LIQUIDITY
SkyBridge Capital and Stonebrook Capital Management have formed a strategic partnership. Under the deal SkyBridge will offer its network of investors access to the Stonebrook Alternative Beta Fund.
The Stonebrook Alternative Beta Fund provides investors with the performance characteristics of diversified hedge fund of funds through investment in highly liquid instruments such as stock and bond indices. Stonebrook is able to provide transparency, weekly liquidity and low fees.
Fintag says Here we go again. The Skoda with the Ferrari sticker on the trunk.
TWO HEDGE FUNDS AMONG RECIPIENTS OF AIG'S BAILOUT BUCKS
Two hedge funds can be counted among the recipients of American International Group's government-subsidized payouts.
Thus far the public outrage over the $93 billion that AIG is paying to its counterparties has focused on payments to Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and other big banks, but two hedge funds have received $400 million of taxpayer money.
Fintag says Well there you go. Bailing out the world's largest Ponzi scheme has unwanted side effects.
Hedge funds are considering possible legal action against Porsche, the German carmaker, over its involvement in an extreme share price spike in Volkswagen that led to billions of dollars of losses for the funds. Lawyers for funds said they were handling numerous cases, although many are at early stages and may not be filed. AIMA, the hedge-fund trade body, last week began consulting members to assess the level of interest in exploring legal options over VW losses.
Fintag says See. My daily picture is always relevant ...
HORSHAM, England - Finance officials from rich and developing countries pledged Saturday to do "whatever is necessary" to fix the global economy, including supervision of freewheeling hedge funds and restoring bank lending by dealing with the shaky securities clogging their finances.
Fintag says Well I would be surprised if they had said they didn't want to revive it although their actions will probably do so. What a complete waste of time.
RAB Capital, the Aim-listed hedge fund manager, has changed the managers of its UK fund after assets plummeted from a peak of more than $400m two years ago to less than $5m (£3.6m).
Almost all clients of the fund withdrew what was left of their money after losses of more than 31 per cent last year, worse than the average fund.
Fintag says There is a GLGenders episode when RAB have a fight with GLG in Berkeley Square. I must dig it out.
HERE IS THE CITY NEWS HITS NEW ALL-TIME READER HIGH
Our 30-day unique user count rose to 236,555 (Source - Google Analytics).
Readers in 159 countries / territories are now regular users of our News service, and our free weekly e-mail alerts are now sent out to almost 140,000 financial markets professionals.
A big 'Thank you' to our readers for making 2009 (so far) another record-breaking year.
Fintag says Respect. I wondered where my readers had gone to. Sorry I misread it. I thought it said the hits were a daily 236,000 readers. So what have you been up to HITC? I think that pink puts people off.
In the clearest signal yet of official concern over Ireland's stricken economy, the City's watchdog is demanding building societies disclose details of loans they have made to Irish banks. Financial Services Authority officials have been taking particular interest in exposure to Irish institutions.
This is over and above the usual regulatory monitoring requirements, suggesting it has particular concern about the security of these loans - made with the savings of society members.
Fintag says Mmmm.
HEDGE FUND MANAGER STEVE COHEN PUTS £320M ART COLLECTION ON SHOW
The names of famous works owned by Mr Cohen, America's 36th richest man, emerged as he announced he was to lend 20 paintings and sculptures to Sotheby's in New York for an exhibition in April.
The works, by artists including Willem de Kooning, Pablo Picasso and Lisa Yuskavage, all depict female subjects and aren't for sale, said Jonathan Gasthalter, Mr Cohen's spokesman.
The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street, worried that anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress and the White House and could complicate President Obama's agenda.
The administration's sharp rebuke of the American International Group on Sunday for handing out $165 million in executive bonuses — Lawrence H. Summers, director of the president's National Economic Council, described it as “outrageous” on “This Week” on ABC — marks the latest effort by the White House to distance itself from abuses that could feed potentially disruptive public anger.
Fintag says I am feeling vindicated. Was I the only person who saw through the Boring O? He is a lawyer, reads scripts well and smokes. That is it. The fact Bush had a higher approval rating at this stage of the presidency is hilarious!
S.E.C. PLANS MEETING ON REVISING SHORT-SELLING RULES
The Securities and Exchange Commission said it will meet on April 8 to consider whether to propose “short sale price test rules,” which could include reinstating the so-called “uptick rule,” Reuters reports.
The S.E.C. issued a brief agenda for the meeting, but did not provide details on what it might propose. An agency spokesman said later on Friday the commission will consider whether to propose reinstating the uptick rule or a different price test.
They are larger-than-life figures at home and abroad, men who saw themselves as the Carnegies or Rockefellers of Russia. They are known as oligarchs, and they may soon be thrown into the dustbin of history by the economic crisis, The New York Times's Andrew E. Kramer writes.
Brash, young and wealthy, those insiders of post-Soviet business who escaped nationalization — to say nothing of exile or prison — under Vladimir V. Putin went on to make ever greater fortunes in the commodity boom of recent years. But few businessmen anywhere have fallen as hard or as fast in recent months.
Fintag says Black Mercedes. Iceland. Leverage. Equity for Loans. Money Laundering. Chelsea Football Club. Good result against Manchester City who are funded by a different sort of money. Oil.
25 comments
visitor said ...
Visiting London. In possession of an Oyster card. I've been to Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and V&A. Acceptable entry fees. Nothing else to see, right?
16 Mar 09 - 08:34 gmt
MacroHedgeBoy said ...
Nice 356. Is it a real one or a copy? And Fin, Paddies day is tomorrow...
16 Mar 09 - 08:41 gmt
xen said ...
Visitor - head to the city and canary wharf to see some of the hearts of financial markets - surely a tourist attraction by now?!
16 Mar 09 - 08:55 gmt
anonymous said ...
I'd also go to the Imperial War museum and St Pauls for matins..... and walk over Waterloo bridge in the morning..
16 Mar 09 - 08:58 gmt
Munch said ...
Nothing to see in London - just 8 million soulless people grinding out a living - come to Africa, free your soul
Regards
Munch
16 Mar 09 - 09:08 gmt
anonymous said ...
well at least Michael Jackson is well and truly back, bring back the 80s.
16 Mar 09 - 09:55 gmt
MsR said ...
@anon9.55 Rumour is it wasn't him who made announcement re concert. Think about it. Given the technology of mime, quite possible for a Jacko concert without real Jacko. Not that I'm suspicious. Visitor..Go walk around Smithfield. Eat a fish finger sandwich at Smiths (I do occasionally) Then to St Pauls and over wobbly bridge. Go back though. Tate Modern a nervous collection. Recommend Rodchenko tho' if you pay
16 Mar 09 - 10:25 gmt
anonymous said ...
dont stop till youve had enough
16 Mar 09 - 10:25 gmt
Alpha60 said ...
lovely Porsche Fin...Yours?
16 Mar 09 - 10:42 gmt
Cyclops said ...
HERE IS THE CITY hits are high cos people have nothing to do at work.
One glimmer of hope: if even Michael Jackson can pull himself out of bankruptcy, there is hope for banks. V Bandit could sing "Thriller" and show Citi's balance sheet on the back. HBOS, "Beat it" for dubbed guitar solo (fake assets), and Barclays, "Billie Jean", for those dance steps over magic lights (allusion to lunatic leadership).
16 Mar 09 - 11:46 gmt
anonymous said ...
"hedge funds will eventually be subject to the same supervisory rules as banks, under a tightening"
16 Mar 09 - 13:21 gmt
anonymous said ...
not sure what to say
16 Mar 09 - 13:21 gmt
Backpacker said ...
top 3 places for lunch
16 Mar 09 - 13:22 gmt
Anonymous Bull said ...
Can't see Moron anywhere today...Moron?!?!?!
16 Mar 09 - 13:41 gmt
Moron said ...
R u missing me:))))
16 Mar 09 - 13:55 gmt
Anonymous Bull said ...
Wouldn't go that far moron...But your comments do provide "liquidity" to the comments section on here !!
16 Mar 09 - 14:07 gmt
Moron said ...
he he....u sound like u have a crush on me mate:))
16 Mar 09 - 14:12 gmt
MsR said ...
@anonbull Maybe Moron was playing hard to get? @moron you are rather coquettish at times you know
16 Mar 09 - 15:34 gmt
Osiris said ...
what are the odds of obama setting up the aig bonus hogs to head the 'bad' banks; in exchange for not sharing a cell with madoff? 2:1 ? 2010:1 ? 165m:1 ?
16 Mar 09 - 15:53 gmt
Moron said ...
ms R....uts been a long time since i heard that word coquettish:)))
16 Mar 09 - 15:57 gmt
MsR said ...
@moron: I have been accused of it on occasion. But in a good way:)
16 Mar 09 - 16:04 gmt
anonymous said ...
Moron, is it time to short?
16 Mar 09 - 16:21 gmt
Moron said ...
yes...very overbought on most indicators now....typical bear market rally....animal spirits at this stage...will end in tears
16 Mar 09 - 16:23 gmt
Anonymous Bull said ...
Not a time to short...the trend is your friend anon 16:21...keep buying!!
16 Mar 09 - 16:31 gmt
Moron said ...
thats a very dangerous call anon bull....very dangerous!!
facebook
free daily e-mail
feed
