The Good, the Bad, and ...

The Ugly.

That's watching a few clips of Yankee batters whiffing last evening. The Universe is troubled, and in disharmony as the Yankees lost Game 1 of the World Series at home 6-1. Yankees fans must hope that this loss occurred from overconfidence and the Bronx Bombers now will reach deep into themselves for renewed energy and vitality to win the Series.

Here's an interesting headline from Le Monde on the heritage of the Yankees - "Base-ball: la gloira retrouvée des Yankees" meaning "Baseball: glory regained for the Yankees". The article will be my French study lesson for today. One thing that self-study of a foreign language requires is translation workouts that are interesting.

The Bad

As usual for the past few years, that's Wall Street and its seemingly immanent sleaze. Galleon paid millions to Wall Street firms for trading information, aka "color", that would not have been normally disclosed to most investors. I suppose it got value for its money. Now think. Who gave them that information ? Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc. And who profits hugely from proprietary trading ? Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley (in the past), etc. So Goldman Sachs and the rest of the Street and big banks with proprietary trading desks - who ALSO represent themselves as honest brokers - make money from THE SAME information that Galleon is supposed to have illegally obtained.

There are honest brokers, and there are sleazy brokers. A sleazy broker, whether in stocks or real estate or cotton, trades and deals ahead of and in competition with its OWN customers. In some professions that is expressly illegal. It no doubt violates the duty an agent (the broker) owes to its client (the customer).

Financial reform should prohibit any broker from operating a proprietary trading desk. Period. If Goldman Sachs employees or even its stockholders want them to trade for their own account, let them split into two companies, viz. an honest broker and investment banks, and a hedge fund.

The Good

It's possible that cluster FUBAR climate treaty will collapse. Europe is bickering over the costs. China and the US disagree, too. Good.

Actions

The markets dropped yesterday when the beefers and traders, as usual, all tried to sell at the same time. Hardest hit were their technology and resource favorites.

I bought some more VVUS (a long term speculation on their promising diet drug), re-bought some RIMM at the gap support level to re-start a position, and a few more MT call options. MT earnings seemed good to me, but that stock was hammered.

I have plenty of cash on the sidelines and am looking for more speculations.

Word of the Day

"Cant" - noun and verb [$10]; this is one set of meanings.
Cant means (noun) 1. insincere pious or moral talk; 2. ephemeral or fashionable catchwords; 3. language peculiar to a class, profession, seat, etc.: jargon.
Sentence: Almost every public statement that I've heard from Wall Street figures is mere cant to delude the public to help preserve the vig they skim from the public and investors.