Congrats. Is it just execution or will you get to do some stuff on your own as you grow in the position?
VXX really weird this morning. Vxx is higher and so is the market. They are usually inversely correlated. Im guessing it has to do with Europe but not sure why?
Pffft traffic isn't as bad, lower crime rate, cleaner. I do enjoy Atlanta, but I can't do that traffic.
looks like the DOW has peaked for the time being and is gonna chop around till europe settles down. i dont see much movement one way or another for the next 6ish weeks do yall?
It will pick back up after MLK holiday weekend. Erm, the 20th. President's Day holiday. Whatever its called.
When this payroll bill is signed, it'll pick up even more. We'll see more housing and micro stuff like oil being more exxpensive that will drive the markets in the short term
Volatility (vix) has really jumped today which is suspicious because the market is higher. Usually the vix only goes up when the market is down. To me its kind of a warning sign, but who knows.
Housing will be interesting to see how the sudden influx of foreclosure homes that will finally get to market is affected when combined with the tighter lending standards, i.e. down payment requirements and tougher underwriting to beat. Between the increase in supply and tighter lending standards, something will have to give with lending standards to allow the homes to be picked up by potential homeowners.
It might have been discussed here, but has anyone heard about this Iraqi currency get rich quick scheme? I've got a friend who just paid $1,000 for 1.46 million dinars. Supposedly the Dinar is going to be re-valued at some point in the near future making owners of dinars very rich men. How legit is this? Seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy a few hundred dollars worth of them if they actually are revalued. The risk is high that nothing will ever come of this, but if it actually happens then you would get one hell of a return on the investment. Is this all bullshit? I really don't know and my friend is a salesman and a half, so I never know whether he's full of shit. Thanks for any input. http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/krantz/2011-01-11-iraqi-dinar_N.htm
good day for the portfolio, JPM/PFE both up marginally with a nice 3% pop in MRVL and BAC. i'm sticking with BAC for now, seems to be testing the $8 mark and holding up. not that i have any real technicals to support that theory ... Rutgers fan that likes tech analysis are you out there?
Yep yep. I think lending will have to loosen up. Banks own most of these homes if I'm remembering correctly. They'll probably change their lending standards to move their assets. ie disregarding credit score and looking solely at ability to repay. You and I both know that many wealthy people undoubtedly have the ability to repay, but have poor credit.
X is a good idea at these levels. Something you purchase and forget about considering how cyclical it is. There will be plenty of upside in the medium to long term. Wanted to get in around 20 but it never returned to those levels. I also like to play the steel sector through the ore miners, VALE, BHP, etc...
Currently writing a 25 page paper on the bankruptcy of Jefferson County, Alabama (the largest municipal bankruptcy ever) for an independent writing project class in law school. I'm going to focus on regulation of OTC derivatives (mostly focusing on interest rate swap agreements and credit default swaps). For those that don't know, interest rate swaps helped add a large portion of Jefferson County's debt. I know we don't want to over regulate OTC derivatives because we don't want to curb innovation in that market. There are also legitimate concerns about systemic risk. There are currently safe harbor agreements for counter parties in credit default swap agreements that allow them to go in and seize collateral when the opposing counter party defaults(this is obviously not how collateral priority usually works in bankruptcies). The idea is that if they were not allowed to gain some liquidity from the deal before the bankruptcy froze all assets, that they would take a hit, and there would be a domino effect/systemic risk. However, even proponents of an unregulated derivative market have to admit that there are a large amount of predatory contracts being made. For example, in Jefferson County JP Morgan convinced county regulators that interest rate swap agreements would help hedge some of their debt. However, JP Morgan's main interest was brokering these deals, for which they charged millions (they made huge bribes to local firms to secure these bids, and incorporated the cost of these bribes into the fee on the interest rate swaps). Personally, I think there are times when interest rate swaps or credit default swaps can really help out a debtor, but there is also a lot of abuse. Thoughts? Ideas? Any ideas on where I should be researching? I've mostly been using West Law because I can print West Law articles for free.
You should see what would have happened to Jefferson County if interest rates rose the same amount they fell.
Doesnt sound as fancy, but there are plenty of advantages to the situation you are in. I traded my own book for several years and while it's exciting there is a lot of eating shit too.
i'm excited for the change, i only get to work with stocks/funds/etfs atm, so it'll be a nice change of pace being dedicated to clients' fixed income portfolios ... oh and i get my own bloomberg terminal now
speaking of dividends, have always liked tobacco stocks mo and pm, and big oil cvx. All are pretty pricey at the moment, but moving forward, I like MO. If and when states start legalizing pot to boost their tax revenues, I expect tobacco companies will jump right in.
I bought apple at 422....Trying to figure out whether to dump for a profit and buy back in when it makes inevitable drop to 450 range or just hold for the dividend
what is the expected figure? i haven't read up on it, but i wouldn't hold out for that personally, techs aren't known for paying great dividends
no one knows. I know I can make a quick buck selling now and buying once it drops I am just not generally an investor with a day trading mentality.
Ima look at that BAC and see if I can read the bones sometime this weekend. It'll be good for me to look at something that's alive instead of this shit awful sideways grind I've been following in the Dow. Market is overbought and due for a correction. From a quick look BAC will take that path too IMO.
one of the largest reasons, seriously, was because of the consent judgment from the early 90s case that made jeffco fix the sewer system, but it DID NOT DISALLOW random shit added unto the provisions of the sewer... i.e., the commissioners added random shit on there for various projects ancillary to the sewer claim which was added into all the interest and debt. look it up man, it had the same effect as the bond swaps, it was a HUGE chunk of the overall debt that jeffco is paying now... had a class on business law at AU and this was a big case study
right. I'll be discussing the 96 decree that made them comply with EPA standards. That will be in the section discussing the history of the sewer debt and how it turned into such a debacle. That decree fucked the county because it made them incorporate 21 municipalities into their sewer system. The county also fucked itself in several ways, without getting into the bribery and corruption. For example, they employed a prequalified bid process in an attempt to get only the best contractors to work on the sewer. This drove down competition and increased the cost of building the sewer. But I'm trying to get this paper published so I have to write about something that is more novel than just how the county go into this mess. That's why I'm going to be discussing regulation of OTC derivatives and their implication in municipal bankruptcies. Basically the same thing happened in Orange County, CA in the 90s. JP Morgan really should be punished. They have a way of being predatory with these interest rate swap schemes, driving up the cost of the transaction, and not upholding their fiduciary duty or at least letting the counter party know the full extent of what they're getting into. They don't have the best interest of the counterparty in mind when brokering these transactions.
How do you think regulation would have changed the situation? What regulation would have avoided it? FYI--this statement, "JP Morgan really should be punished. They have a way of being predatory with these interest rate swap schemes, driving up the cost of the transaction, and not upholding their fiduciary duty" is pretty controversial and is laced with your bias. 1) Using the term "scheme" 2) Is JPM acting as a fiduciary?
Read the Big Short by Michael Lewis, it will paint an excellent landscape and background for your focus of Jefferson County.
I'll put it on my list of books to read. But I'm afraid I already have too much reading,cases, and secondary sources to get through to actually sit down and read a whole book.
Close to what you we're writing about if you want a more recent example to throw in there http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...ing-wall-street-20-billion-for-bad-swaps.html