The spotlight on Harry Markopolos, the whistleblower who was ignored regarding the Madoff fraud, is about to shine as brightly as a supernova. As the gushing press and blogosphere begin their lionization of the brilliant and intrepid math whiz who saw through the deception, I thought it might be a good time to assemble a list of the following little-known “facts” from around the Internet about the man who could have been a hero.
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Consolidate Your Brokerage Accounts in 2009: Your Friend, the ACAT
Consolidating your brokerage accounts isn’t the same thing as “putting all your eggs in one basket”. Rather, it’s about keeping a wide variety of different investments with only a few trustworthy and helpful people so you can keep track of what you’re doing. Putting all your eggs in one basket would be consolidating your whole…
OMG: Morgan Stanley and Citi/ Smith Barney?
Reuters is reporting the possibility of Citi and Morgan Stanley getting together. Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley as a possible joint venture…
Full Disclosure: No Position in either MS or C
Test Your Broker: Call Him Before 8:30 AM
As a broker AND a branch manager, I am consistently amazed at how difficult it is to explain the importance of starting the day early to other reps. The conversation goes something like this: Branch Manager: Where are you, the market is opening in 20 minutes… Broker: Yeah, I know, had to take care of a…
Give the Black Swan a Rest for 2009; The Search for a New Metaphor
With the fresh start we’ve been given, if only by the calendar, I’m here to say that enough is enough – let’s put the over-referenced, tired Black Swan trope into retirement. Just in case we get another year of absurdity and hyperbolic surprise, I’ve come up with a few equally improbable animal variations that could take it’s place for 2009
Barron's Buzz: January 4th, 2009
Quick thoughts on this week’s Barron’s… Bubble in Treasuries? Yeah, probably…Read the cover article, called Get Out Now by Andrew Bary and you decide. Kopin Tan does the obligatory “cash on the sidelines about to come into the market” story in The Trader column. I’ll admit, the figures are huge, but they’ve always seemed huge,…
471 Stocks In The S&P 500 Down In 2008…The Only Winners Were The Takeovers
Over at Bespoke Investment Group‘s site, they’ve got the top 15 performers on the S&P 500 and the bottom 15 for 2008. Interestingly, out of the worst 15, 5 of them don’t exist anymore (Lehman, WaMu, Nat City, Bear and Circuit City). More interestingly, and a great sign of the times for 2008, was that…
Slightly Used Ticker Symbols For Sale: MER and WB
On a quiet post-New Year’s Friday, two of the most widely followed stocks disappeared from Quotrons and trading screens around the world: MER and WB.
As Merrill Lynch and Wachovia begin their new lives as foster children of Bank of America and Wells Fargo respectively, the question remains, what will happen to their orphaned call letters? Do they end up on the Island of Misfit Ticker Symbols?
Graduating in a Bear Market? Wall Street's Not Hiring.
With graduation approaching for the Class of 2009, college seniors are scrambling to find jobs by the spring. Let’s hope they don’t have their hearts set on Wall Street. By the time the big unwind is through, Wall Street (and peripheral sectors) will probably have lost more than a quarter of a million jobs. Unlike ’87 or ’01-’02, most of these jobs won’t be coming back.
Doug Kass Rolls Out 2009 Predictions, Ignore Them At Your Own Peril!
In taking a page from Byron Wein of Morgan Stanley fame, Doug Kass has been listing 20 outlying possible events for the coming year for a while now and in ’08, he absolutely killed it. 60% of his 20 predictions for 2008 came to pass, including some of the more far-fetched ones.
Yesterday, Kass’s 2009 list came out…
