Friday, April 1, 2011

Hogs at the Trough

Is there any wonder why Main Street hates Wall Street?  The sheer greed and rampant looting by the Street Vikings, and the pompous posturing, makes me puke.  And get angry.  The latest example is that multimillionaire lieutenant of Warren Buffet being such a hog that he just has to buy a huge position in a stock before recommending to Warren Buffet that Berkshire Hathaway buy the company at a huge mark-up.  He was front running his own employer!

Despite vague statements, I doubt that the front running was legal; under simple, longstanding principles of common law, an employee's duty is to the employer in this type of action.  Such front running is statutorily illegal in many analogous professions, such as real estate broker.  It certainly was not ethical.

I'll give octogenarian Warren Buffet a pass ... he's ready for the dog track and might not be able to pay attention to details nowadays.

But in today's WSJ, the HOG claims that "I don't believe I did anything wrong or unethical," adding that he would "do it again tomorrow."

Sigh ...
 
Lawyers and investment bankers on the Street are perfectly happy to screw the poor and ignorant, and then later claim "client confidentiality".  Traders front run clients.  Street firms sell clients garbage they expect to default.  Street firms take opposite positions they are recommending to clients.  It's endless.  Paid hacks funded by the Street fight basic fairness in financial markets.  Street lobbyists fight market regulations when even yesterday, exchanges have to cancel trades in ETFs that went awry under the electronic trading cluster FUBAR system.
 
Nothing has been learned by the Panic of 2008.  The Vikings are back looting the nation.  :((
 
Actions
 
None yet.  A strong signal to add to cash exists, but no weak sell signals exist except in gold (for which I usually require a strong signal) before acting.
 
By the way, a "weak signal" is when an asset class is at least 5% out of balance; a strong signal is when the class is at least 10% out of balance.  Example:  An asset class with a canonical 20% position is out of balance by 10% when it reaches 22% of total assets. Here's the math: (22%-20%)/20% = 2%/20% = 10%.  This calculation is easily coded into a spreadsheet to show the signals.
 
I may act at some time if cash gets further out of balance, but for now I will "Obey the Machine".
 
Word of the Day
 
"Jackleg" - adjective & noun [$100] a Big Al word!  Chiefly South Midland and Southern US.
Jackleg means (adjective) 1. unsilled or untrained for one's work; amateur: a jackleg electrician; 2. unscrupulous or without accepted standards of one's profession:  a jackleg lawyer; 3. makeshift, temporary; (noun) an unskilled or unscrupulous itinerant worker or practitioner.
Sentence:  Wall Street is crammed with jackleg traders, bankers and lawyers.  Can one find a single honest man there?  Yes, I know a few ... just a few.  When I went to work on the Street (1981), it was crammed with persons of integrity.  When my partners & I left to form our own firm (1993), it was becoming dominated by knaves.

10 comments:

Bud said...

Bman can you please tell me who the victim is here ??? hello ??...........still waiting...........ok............i'll answer


no one........this is a victimless 'crime'.........in my eyes..........it's a technicality


Bman aren't you the one that used to say the 'state' is always lookin to fine or imprison it's citizens on technicalities ???? insider trading or front running is not a crime in my opinion



hogs at the trough my ass

Bunkerman said...

Directly or indirectly, Sokol bid away shares from people who would have otherwise held them until the Berkshire takeover was announced.

I'm not saying throw him in jail, but he should be banned from the securities business from working as an agent in any capacity.

Bunkerman said...

A real estate broker who did the same thing would lose his license.

A car salesman who did the same thing would be fired.

etc.

the ethics are obvious.

Bunkerman said...

more jobs improvement.

QE2 working as planned.

Go for it, Ben ... buy 100% of plan.

Uh .. Bud ... are you ready to capitulate?

:))

Spin-em said...

jackleg ($100)..wth????...you really must be burned out...nutten like hooomme coookin....

what a buncha thumpin tosh..looool(that line is great,,,cracks me up )

Bunkerman said...

hey, "jackleg" was NOT in my fine dictionary [Concise Oxford Dictionary] but was in my unabridged dictionary.

Bunkerman said...

no value inflation here - I use an absolute standard

:)

Bud said...

wheat high.......soybean high..........orange juice high.............yup ....QE2 is workin alright.....dr bernanke looting...common man starving......Bman cheering...........sickening


capitulate my as

Spin-em said...

Bud..I wanna clear something up...weve had our troubles in the past....but I wanna sincerely tellya Im sorry for giving you crap...it just got outta hand ...wanted to say Im sorry and respect ya as a trader..and as a person..
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APRIL FOOLS!!!!

Big_Al said...

As a human I am compelled to place others in categories so that my world will have order.
There are three kinds of people.
1. Positive: These are champions of a cause. Bunkerman belongs to this group.
2. Neutal: The spectators. I put myself in group #2, but not proudly.
3. Negative: The complainers. My first impression says Bud belongs here.
Spin-em has yet to be classified. A sense of humor goes a long way with me.