Sure, your friends told you that the days of 20-something Wall Street riches were over, but you knew you were better than that. Particularly when you diversified out of Investment Banks last year and branched over to hedge funds. Specifically, your own hedge fund. You know, like that truck driver commercial that used to run late at night. Be your own boss. Set your own hours. Yes, it looked like you were just sitting at home in your Ralph Lauren PJs and... (yes, I have to use this word) day trading. Yes, your friends see it that way, but you know better. Be this as it may, you slogged forward. No one was going to steal your dream. No sir.
Well, except for Lehman Brothers. Yes, they seemed like the cool underdog in the prime brokerage business (and no doubt you were congratulating yourself for avoiding Bear- how awesome was it to answer all those calls from your friends after that place collapsed? How excellent was it to tell them "no, I use Lehman"?) Well, now you're screwed. Now that intensely clever decision has bitten you right on the ass. Now all your assets are frozen. Your annual return figures may never recover and you just missed the best shorting opportunity this generation is likely to see. Don't despair. Maybe your parents will take you in for a few weeks months.
Lehman Hedge-Fund Clients Left Cold as Assets Frozen [Bloomberg]
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:04AM
what a positive piece of journalism. Taking joy in the fact that this scenario is very much commonplace right now to quite a few.
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:14AM
Ring the alarm.... your woman has just been sighted...
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:15AM
They just took the Lehman Brothers logo off the NY building. Does anyone have a picture?
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:19AM
I don't work for Lehman, but does anyone else feel angry at these Brits for the way they have handled the whole situation?
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:30AM
Can we get some useful information on this blog? If all I wanted was imaginative writing I'd read Dooce.
Posted by CrazyCougar , Oct 01, 2008 9:31AM
There are many ways to be fucked when conducting business related in any way to a bank/ brokerage going down the drain: As shareholders, bond holders, "ordinary Joes" with part of their 401K unfortunately invested in one (or several) of now defunct financial institution, clients with assets parked there, hedgefunds, state pension funds (like the Norwegian Government Pension Fund), counterparties.
Or simply traders with no particular affiliation to a collapsed bank other than, by coincidence, having purchased warrants issued by that institution.
After LEH's demise, traders worldwide woke up to discover that their LEH issued warrants had turned as worthless as (or more worthless than) LEH's shares - with the counter party gone, there is no way to trade that stuff.
So before entering in even a short-term business relation (i.e., as a buyer/seller of warrants) with any financial company, it's probably become essential now to check their stock chart first. And if it looks anything like BSC's/ LEH's/ WM's ... don't touch that stuff!
P.S.: For the time being, that means no Commerzbank (CBK) issued warrants right now, thank you very much!
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:36AM
4 How have they handled the situation? They paid money for the thing and can now do with it as they wish. This isn't a church social.
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:39AM
@1
assumption of the risk..
I'm tired of HF whiners saying, "hey, don't laugh at my misfortune(s). This is serious". Let's not forget the days when those folks were smirking idiots bathing in fortunes with a copy of Trader Monthly under arm.
Complaining about your situation/reality is like an overpaid quarterback trying to sue a linebacker for given him a concussion. Pussy.
Suck it up. Take you licks, dust off your resume and get back in the game.
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:44AM
The Brits waited for Lehman to die, and then picked off valuables off its carcass.
Posted by Debter , Oct 01, 2008 9:45AM
sticking with the football analogy: I think investors are complaining b/c every time they line up to score a touchdown or kick an extra point they move the the goal line and uprights. I think all the rule changing is probably keeping a lot of business from being done as well.
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:46AM
@3 you're $700B short and a week late.
Posted by FUNdamental , Oct 01, 2008 9:51AM
@ crazy - you only want to put one bank on your no warrants list?
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 9:53AM
if you ever go to timmay's website, you will see that shorting micro-caps and specs is about 90% of his game plan and current 133% return.
has anyone ever asked him wtf his returns will look like when the overall market stops tanking finally?
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 10:19AM
no no Timmay is self-clearing, no worries
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 10:24AM
No Commerzbank warrants??? What's the "story" w/ CBK ??
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 10:24AM
No Commerzbank warrants??? What's the "story" w/ CBK ??
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 10:24AM
No Commerzbank warrants??? What's the "story" w/ CBK ??
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 10:25AM
No Commerzbank warrants??? What's the "story" w/ CBK ??
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 10:39AM
#4
Barclays was probably told by the Treasury to get rid of all the Lehman remnants as quickly as they can so they can get on with the business.
One reason is so that Dick Fuld can never make a comeback.
A little sad, but that's Wall Street.
:P
Posted by StupidEquityGuy , Oct 01, 2008 10:58AM
Interesting article about Prime Brokerages having issue due to Lehman still holding assets. Activist investor Olivant is in contact with the administrators of collapsed bank Lehman Brothers to secure its 2.78 percent stake in Swiss bank UBS
http://www.reuters.com/article/etfNews/idUSL158171720081001
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 12:31PM
HF's are supposed to be the best and the brightest. You did not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on at Lehman. These HF's were asleep at the wheel and their clients got screwed.
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 12:52PM
@21 hindsight is 20/20, you sound like a financial journalist
Posted by guest , Oct 01, 2008 1:03PM
@22 when you charge a fee of 2/20 the least you can do is make sure your prime broker is not going bust.