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SEC Nails MN-Based Currency Trading Fraud

The SEC nailed a Minnesota-based currency fraud today, a bust that I believe will be the opening salvo in a much bigger battle to protect Americans from this burgeoning area of fraud. SEC Obtains Asset Freeze in Minnesota-Based Foreign Currency Trading Scheme FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2009-253 Washington, D.C., Nov. 24, 2009 — The Securities and…

New Glossary of Finance Terms Volume II

Back in March, I updated the definitions of several finance terms to better suit the times.  Due to popular demand, I’m bringing this feature back this afternoon and covering a handful of definitions for y’all. Here’s the New Glossary of Finance Terms Volume II… Stagflation: This occurs when the number of male deer grows too…

A Contrarian Conundrum…and Some Quotations

Who is the real contrarian these days? The Bears, who are dead right about how bad the economy is or the Bulls who are dead right for being long virtually every asset class, the riskier the better?  Perhaps the true contrarian is neutral right now, refusing to play either the economic weakness or the markets’…

John Paulson Likes Gold…More Than a Friend

John Paulson of Paulson & Co, the legendary hedge fund manager who made tens of billions betting on the mortgage crisis between 2007 to 2009, likes gold.  He really likes it.  He likes gold more than a friend. To most market participants, this is not news, but here’s something you probably didn’t know:  Paulson owns…

Whither the Wirehouse?

    Charles Schwab just conducted a poll of 200 financial advisors, all at full service firms (aka wirehouses).  More than half had at least 10 years under their belts and the median assets under management was $84 mil. The prognosis was not a good one for the name-brand wirehouse firms… From Financial-Planning.com: Less than…

The Reformed Broker for Bank of America CEO

After much soul searching and consumption of Skittles over the weekend, I’ve decided to formally throw my hat in the ring for the position of Bank of America CEO. Frankly, folks, this is the easiest job in finance right now – akin to taking over an NFL franchise the year after it goes 0 and…

Correcting the Rest of the "Headline Readers" on Goldman Sachs

There’s a pet name I’ve privately assigned to many of the bloggers out there who are so obsessed with covering every story that they barely read actual articles anymore.  It’s “Headline Readers“.  You know who they are and so do they, so we’ll leave it at that. Now that the government has just released its…

Trader Mark Spots the Mark-Up Monday Trend

Some of my most profitable and interesting discoveries in the market have occured when I’ve taken a hunch or gut feeling and then backed that up with some actual fact-finding. My boy Trader Mark (Fund My Mutual Fund) just followed up on one of his suspicions concerning why it felt as though the market’s been…

Terry Keenan Stuffs This Year's Wall Street Turkeys

The New York Post‘s always acerbically witty columnist Terry Keenan lines up this year’s Wall Street Turkeys and knocks ’em down. The names on the list are fairly predictable even to the lay person, in light of how much ink our favorite captains of finance have recieved nationally this year.  They include Vikram Pandit, Timothy…