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
Yesterday my IT team gave me their budget and execution plan for the new IT rollout. Our PCs and servers are getting a little old and dusty and my quants are still stuck in 2003. We had tried a small upgrade project on a younger quant whose hobbies include taking iPhones apart blind fold and building models in spreadsheets where the cells are black and so is the text.
The outcome was not good. Office 2007 was not liked. He said we would have to retrain to understand what all the pictures mean. You see, quants are numbers and processes people and clicking ribbons and icons to do things is not how they work. The outcome? He wants us to downgrade to Office 2000 because it is faster.
On the PCs, he said he liked it the way it was. Their old 2005 models were so highly configured and tuned that they would need two weeks to rebuild. He also claimed is was better for the environment not to upgrade.
The good news he said we should upgrade our servers. But I have said no as the budget is GBP175,000. That would buy my a nice car or a couple of trips on a Private Jet to the Caymans.
Sometimes change is a bad thing.
IMF SAYS EUROZONE NEEDS TO DO MORE TO CLEAN UP BANKING SECTOR; RECOVERY LIKELY TO BE SLOW - - SHAPE AND TIMING HIGHLY UNCERTAIN
The IMF, following its consultations with Eurozone officials on Monday, in preparation for its annual assessment of the Eurozone's economy, said the region still needs to do more to clean up its banking sector, weakened by the global financial crisis. The International Monetary Fund team said the recovery is likely to be slow and its shape and timing highly uncertain. Ongoing deleveraging, corporate restructuring, and rising unemployment will weigh on domestic demand.
Fintag says So the Euro Elections are over. A slight shift to the right and for the first time the EU Parliament has some serious opposition.
Yesterday, that big Bully Gordon Brown said sorry to his victims and they forgave his weaknesses and kept their jobs for a few months more. Biting the hand that feeds them doesn't always work.
Hopefully the GBP should pick up a bit in time for my 6 week break in the South of France.
An upbeat assessment of the prospects of recovery from the OECD, a White House forecast of 600,000 jobs to be created and brighter news from China to Germany has bolstered hopes that the global recession may be shorter-lived than feared. The OECD said that the UK was one of four advanced economies that are displaying "stronger signals of a possible trough", along with Canada, France and Italy.
Fintag says Wow, he is a magician after all.
Will he choose to create these jobs in Detroit or Wall Street? I think I know the answer to that one. He won't create any.
MAY FLOWERS: HEDGE FUND POST BEST MONTH IN NINE YEARS
Harking back to better days in these troubled times, Hedge Fund Research said that May was the industry's best month in more than nine years.
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index surged 5.23% last month, its best single-month return since February 2000. The average hedge fund is up 9.43% year-to-date, just five months after ending one of their worst years in history, with an average loss of nearly 20%.
All of the HFRI strategy and substrategy indices were in positive ground last month; the worst performer, private issue and Regulation D funds, still managed a 0.37%. And only three substrategies—notably short bias funds, which, battered by the stock market rally, have lost 6.11% this year—are in the red through the first five months.
Fintag says Sweet dreams are made of this. Although wait for June when it will be down again.
DISAPPEARED CREDIT SUISSE BANKER NOW DECLARED A FUGITIVE
Ex-Credit Suisse trader Julian Tzolov, 36, was last week declared a fugitive from justice. He may have returned to his native Bulgaria. An arrest warrant was issued on May 11th. The US Attorney for the Eastern District said in a letter to the presiding judge that: 'Beginning on May 9th, and continuing thereafter, the government has undertaken an extensive effort to determine Tzolov's whereabouts and apprehend him'.
Tzolov has been free on $3m bail since his arrest last September. He was indicted along with former work colleague Eric Butler. Tzolov is said to have transfered around $2.3m outside the US in the last few months. A federal judge will decide this week whether to postpone the date of the trial. Jury selection was supposed to commence on June 22th.
Fintag says I guess you could retire nicely in Bulgaria on USD2.3m.
PETER L. BERNSTEIN, EXPLAINER OF RISKS OF STOCKS, DIES AT 90
Peter L. Bernstein, an economic historian and a widely read popularizer of the efficient market theory, which changed trading behavior on Wall Street, died Friday at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital. He was 90 and lived in Manhattan.
Mr. Bernstein published most of his best-known books in the last 20 years of his life, including the best-selling “Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk” (John Wiley & Son) in 1996 and “Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street” (Free Press) in 1991.
Fintag says The Thomas Paine of Risk Management. RIP.
BGI DEAL GOOD FOR BLACKROCK AND GULF BUT WHAT ABOUT BARCLAYS?
Ten days ago Larry Fink, the boss of BlackRock Investment Management, surprised staff by taking a last-minute flight to the Gulf. The American money manager doesn't have any offices in the Middle East and the onslaught of the searing Arab summer would normally result in most business being conducted remotely.
Fintag says It is the sale of the century. BGI is very good and is very bad for Barclays. But Bobby Geezer is a short term man. He is looking after his pension.
15 comments
BewareShortbaldingmen said ...
Bit thin 'tag
09 Jun 09 - 06:55 gmt
3 SIGMA said ...
GOOD PUN
09 Jun 09 - 08:08 gmt
AthenaDelphi said ...
Fintag says Wow, he is a magician after all.
Will he choose to create these jobs in Detroit or Wall Street? I think I know the answer to that one. He won't create any.
Fin: He'll create them at Disneyland's Fantasy Land as opposed to Tomorrow Land.
09 Jun 09 - 08:40 gmt
AthenaDelphi said ...
The mainstream media is preoccupied with bread and circuses, and the financial news media is an extended informercial, if not propaganda machine.
There is no economic recovery, only a paper chase. The Obama Administration is failing to take the next steps of creating an industrial policy that places the US labor force and economy on an equal footing with the rest of the world, and reforming the financial system which is unbalanced to the point of deformity.
09 Jun 09 - 08:43 gmt
AthenaDelphi said ...
I cut and pasted the above from a great website that is worth visiting if only for the picture of the Madame Le Moderateur near the bottom of the webpage and the food pictures.
How he got a picture of me in my uniform, I'll never know.
Jesse's cafe americain blogspot - google it if you're interested.
09 Jun 09 - 08:46 gmt
anonymous said ...
Fin: While you're having IT issues - "...hedge funds up 5.68%, May was the best month for hedge funds since February 2000, when the index was up 6.83%,” Lee Hennessee, managing principal of the Hennessee Group, said.
Tell your IT guy to go to Linux Ubuntu and just get faster processors along with more storage capacity. Or get a new IPhone from Apple, they seem to be able to do everything.
09 Jun 09 - 08:58 gmt
anonymous said ...
What are everyone's calls on the markets this week? Looking pretty congested on light volumes to me.
09 Jun 09 - 13:42 gmt
anonymous said ...
the market will go up until the BOE runs out of money and then it will fall again.
09 Jun 09 - 14:31 gmt
anonymous said ...
how are you finding those redemptions finbar?
09 Jun 09 - 15:39 gmt
Maria said ...
i would go with the servers :)...
@BewareShortbaldingmen: funny :)
09 Jun 09 - 15:54 gmt
anonymous said ...
MAY FLOWERS: HEDGE FUND POST BEST MONTH IN NINE YEARS APART FROM MORON CAPITAL
09 Jun 09 - 16:11 gmt
anonymous said ...
MAY FLOWERS: HEDGE FUND POST BEST MONTH IN NINE YEARS APART FROM MORON CAPITAL
09 Jun 09 - 16:12 gmt
Moron said ...
ATTACK KILL DESTROY!!!!!!!!:)))
09 Jun 09 - 16:13 gmt
llcarlos said ...
The USA is still alive but it's hanging by a thread. Come on Supreme Court, do your thing. Canada is going down the tubes with the USA. Shame really.
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