University of California : Swapping For A Loss
The bankruptcy automatically terminated the swap. Under the contract, the university was required to pay a $25 million termination fee to the now-bankrupt bank. But at that point, there was one upside....
View ArticleA Man in the Mirror
Bill Gross on our relationship to success, the heydays of investing and Michael Jackson : Since the early 1970s when the dollar was released from gold and credit began its incredible, liquefying, total...
View ArticleIt Never Rains in California
Bill Gross on liquidity : While private equity and hedge funds have built-in “gates” to prevent an overnight exit, mutual funds and ETFs do not. That an ETF can satisfy redemption with underlying bonds...
View ArticleVolatility As An Opportunity Class
Like navigating busy Southern California freeways, volatility option trading is path dependent: Whether one makes or loses money depends on the path taken from point A to point B – as well as what...
View ArticleBlack Box Trading : Why They All “Blow-Up”
While in Greenwich Ct. one afternoon I will never forget a conversation I had with a leading quantitative portfolio manager. He said to me that despite its obvious attributes “Black Box” trading was...
View ArticleWall Street Banks Admit They Rigged CDS Prices Too
Tyler Durden : Here is a system that ultimately allows banks to control the pricing for the instruments they use to bet against securities that they themselves create. This is just part and parcel of a...
View ArticleLiquidity : Never There When You Need It
Markets are dominated by a few large investors, creating problems of concentration. Similar portfolios and strategies exacerbate risk and the problems of illiquidity if a large number of participants...
View ArticleTrading The Equity Curve
Some trading systems have prolonged periods of winning or losing trades. Long winning streaks may be followed by a prolonged period of drawdown. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could minimize those long...
View ArticleBlack Monday Really Did Look Like 1929 Again
A short and informative recollection of what happened roughly three decades ago, from Barry Ritholtz : Where were you on Monday, Oct. 19, 1987? Today is the first time since 2009 that Oct. 19 has...
View ArticleLunch with the FT: Ben Bernanke
Martin Wolf : I ask him whether he is confident that the improvement in the resilience of the banks is adequate. “It’s a fool’s game to predict that everything is going to be fine, because either it is...
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