Greater and Lesser Fools Grizzled investors will tell you that if you feel euphoric after a trade, it wasn’t a good one. You should feel awful and be second-guessing yourself. That’s the sign of a great trade.” –Andy Kessler, “A Stock-Trading Dupe is Born Every Minute”; The Wall Street Journal (2/21/2021). Admittedly, three weeks does seem...Read More
“Flash Boys” Fallout: The Various Shades of Red Michael Lewis’ list of enemies — many inspired by his new book, “Flash Boys” — just got longer. That’s because of the stock market fallout in the wake of Lewis’ book, out last week, which peeled back the curtain on how high frequency trading (“HFT”) really works,...Read More
Oh, THAT SEC The Wall Street Journal headline (above) earlier this week was certainly encouraging. Unfortunately, the accompanying article appeared in the Journal’s sports section, not finance. So, while the Southeastern Conference’s football teams may be on the rise, the Securities and Exchange Commission is still very much a door mat, at least as far...Read More
“The Senate’s Muckraker” Against a backdrop of epic Wall Street corruption and captured regulators — just look at the resumes of the top 20 SEC officials, starting with Mary Jo White, nominated by Barack Obama to lead the agency — it’s easy to forget that there also good guys out there. Former Senator Ted Kaufman,...Read More
The Wall Street Journal’s Headline — and Mine According to The Wall Street Journal, the Securities and Exchange Commission just nailed hedge fund SAC Capital with the biggest-ever fine for insider trading — $616 million, to be exact. Here’s The Journal’s headline: “SAC Hit With Record Insider Penalty” —The Wall Street Journal; March 15, 2013...Read More
Safety in Numbers? If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem. –John Paul Getty If a small investor gets ripped off by Wall Street, they’re SOL. But if a whole lot of investors get ripped off by Wall Street, there’s at least the...Read More
