THE FINTAG NEWSLETTER
@ Tue 07 April 2009 : GMT

FINTAG COMMENT

4 weeks later.

So the bear rally is over. Apparently. My trip to Hong Kong was abandoned because British Airways had not upgraded their First Class cabins as advertised and tried to give me an Anya Hindmarch bag as compensation. So I stayed at home and watched the pundits on Bloomberg and CNBC spouting the usual waffle. My late afternoon tea at Sketch was with a former (and they are all former these days) colleague who worked at one of the well known Consultants that rhymes with masturbat.on [Editor: uh? Are you following the "here in the city" site and putting periods all ove. t.e pl.c.e?]. He told me the new news for the asset management world is to get out of cash and into assets with a positive return. Wow I thought, that is revolutionary. And on top of this, investors want thousands of reports everyday. They want reports that are verbose, in pdf and are at least 1GB in size. Everyday. Twice a day would be even better.

So the rally is over. Or is it just starting? Apart from day traders, who really cares? The bottom will be here when it comes and when it does it won't be obvious. But I cannot see the bottom just yet. There is too much debt, consumption has collapsed and the people want a few more years living in tents and picking out food from their teeth with sticks.

Talking of sticks, I have decided to solicit donations for running this blog. Despite many institutions wanting to advertise, I have decided to take the adverts off and demand donations. Consider it my pension. I give away a lot for free and in return get nothing but abuse. So click the button and send me a dollar.

Wouldn't it be cool to put money into the Fintag Ponzi Scheme? After I have collected some donations I shall tell you how I spent it. Good trade, eh?

PRIVATE SCHOOLS CLOSING AT RATE OF ONE A FORTNIGHT AS CRUNCH SENDS FAMILIES TO STATE SYSTEM

daily mailFintag says
Pre empting the future is a real doddle if you just use your common sense. Here is a cartoon from last year:

MORE REASONS TO WORRY ABOUT INFLATION

financial armegeddonFintag says
The jury is still out at Fintag. This is still unchartered waters and despite inflation products booming away, will general prices go up or into negative territory is still unknown.

'HOW I CAUSED THE CREDIT CRUNCH'

hitcFintag says
Novels are being written by thousands of unemployed incompetent bankers right now. Most will be dire. They will all tell the same story and it will be really dull. Unless of course someone writes a story about the excesses that were never reported in the media. Watch this space (if you are an agent / publisher and want a decent lunch and a full synopsis plus many chapters already written, then contact me ...but be prepared for debauchery and damn right hubris)

SEC: TEXAS PONZI SCHEME TARGETED CHINESE-AMERICANS

googleFintag says
Winwin capital - doesn't the name give it away?

ZUCKERMAN SUES MERKIN OVER $40 MILLION MADOFF LOSS

bloombergFintag says
The only people who are happy in the US are litigation / dispute resolution lawyers.

REVEALED: HEDGE FUND AND PE LEVERAGE, AMONGST OTHER STRICTURES

ftalphavilleFintag says
So that will be easy to get around then. Does the 250 include leverage? What if I open up 4 managed accounts will 240 in and set up 4 different advisers? Where there is a will, there is a way. And who will ever find out? I will just lie and say my funds have been written down. They are private pools of capital. Is this the end of privacy?

HSBC COMPLETES RECORD RIGHTS ISSUE

financial timesFintag says
HSBC is old, crap, and peopled by complete morons - so says a mate you used to work there. That is why they are so successful.

FUND MANAGERS SWITCH FOCUS TO RISK TRANSPARENCY

hedge funds reviewFintag says
More reports. Nice.

This isn't so nice:

financial news says " Most see liquidity drying up if SEC brings back uptick rule "

JAPAN'S HEDGE FUNDS SHUN TRADING MODELS TO FIND 'HIDDEN JEWELS'

bloombergFintag says
Funny how the Japanese were forced out of Hedge Funds (thanks to Basel 2) and into Japanese equities as the market tanked big time and now they want back in.

bbc says " Japan in 10 trillion yen stimulus "

IRISH BRACED FOR EMERGENCY BUDGET

bbcFintag says
Thankfully it is part of the EURO. So how do the other member states feel about bailing out the Iceland of Europe? They pumped billions into it when it was poor and will have to pump billions into now it is (was) very rich. The joke is with the Irish ...