Archive for May 2010

  • 21 May 2010 at 2:52 PM

London Trader Not In Trouble For Killing A Guy With One Punch

By Bess Levin

A year or so ago, petroleum trader Jeremy Aylmer punched IT executive Charles Cox outside London nightclub Floridita, over a lady. As of last month he was facing manslaughter charges because Cox was knocked unconscious, never came to, and died 20 months later. Today, a court informed him it’s all good.

Aylmer claimed he acted in self-defence and a jury took just 32 minutes to acquit him of manslaughter at Inner London Crown Court. Aylmer, who works for oil giant Chevron, insisted Mr Cox was the ‘aggressor’ during the altercation in the early hours of November 23, 2007. He said Mr Cox had pushed him and swore at him in a row over a woman.

City trader cleared of killing businessman outside West End nightclub [Telegraph via BI]

Earlier: London Trader Facing Manslaughter Charges For Killing A Guy With One Punch

  • 21 May 2010 at 2:35 PM

Somebody Adopt Cody Willard!

By Bess Levin

Your devastating news of the day/week/month (fuck it, year): Fox Business has canceled Happy Hour. At this time it’s reportedly “unclear” as to how the three hosts will be affected but it’s obvious CW’s gonna need a home. Who among you are wiling to take him in? Here’s a quick list of what he brings to the table:

1) As the founder of a hedge fund that at one time had as much as $5,000 in assets under management, is considered one of the greatest minds on Wall Street.

2) Is a voracious Twitter’er and could possibly manage your account

3) IS CHILDHOOD FRIENDS WITH NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, who would probably stop by your office at least once if his little buddy was given a desk there. Continue reading »

  • 21 May 2010 at 2:30 PM

CNBC: “There Are No Corner Offices At PIMCO”

By Bess Levin

Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian sit on the trading floor, and while they also have offices, they “rarely use them.”

  • 21 May 2010 at 1:36 PM

TARP Cost Reduced by $11.4 Billion, Thanks Vikram

By Zachery Kouwe

The Treasury Department said today it has lowered the projected cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program by $11.4 billion to $105.4 billion. We’re still in the hole on the auto companies and AIG – and there’s that bailout of Fannie and Freddie – but we’ll take what we can get. Continue reading »

  • 21 May 2010 at 1:00 PM

Not Even Goldman Sachs Immune From Taking Part In “Icing” Phenom

By Bess Levin

Perhaps you thought the employees of 200 West Street would rather take a Taibbi Pie to the face than participate in the new game the kids are playing these days, wherein you surprise a “bro” with a bottle of Smirnoff Ice, any time, any place and he has to get down on one knee and chug it, unless he happens to whip out his own bottle, in which case, you got owned and have to drink both? That the Masters and Mistresses of the Universe would rather leave such Plebeian pursuits to the employees of Citi and Bank of America? That they would have more pressing things to deal with during work? Or if not, that they would have more sophisticated drinking games to play? Well ya thought wrong, ladies. So far there has been at least one confirmed icing taking place on the premises. Not sure if it was on the trading floor or C-suite but senior execs would be wise to look out for Gary Cohn, who was seen earlier this morning stuffing his pants with bottles, lest he be caught off guard. For those unfamiliar (not saying Viniar, just saying Viniar), a quick demo: Continue reading »

Private Equity Fuming Over Carried Interest Tax Hike

By Zachery Kouwe

For over three years, the private equity industry’s main lobbying group successfully fought against moves to increase taxes on carried interest. Then, Max Baucus and Sander Levin had to go screw it all up yesterday by slipping carried interest legislation into a big tax and spending bill.

That didn’t go unnoticed by the Private Equity Council’s president Doug Lowenstein, who issued a tersely-worded statement yesterday:

“At this time of great market uncertainty, now is not the time to upend more than 50 years of partnership tax law characterizing carried interest as a capital gain,” he said. “This punitive, 157 percent tax hike on growth investment by real estate, venture, private equity and other firms will hurt those companies that are most desperately in need of capital to sustain or create jobs and drive growth.” Continue reading »

  • 21 May 2010 at 10:28 AM

SEC Posts Confidential Citadel Document

By Zachery Kouwe

Oops. Those crazy porn-surfers at the Securities and Exchange Commission inadvertently posted a confidential earnings report from Citadel’s brokerage and market making unit on their website. The report, picked up by Bloomberg News, shows Citadel Securities posted earnings of $81.6 million on revenue of $1.01 billion last year.

The “inadvertent” leak by the SEC justifies some fears by the hedge fund community about registering and turning over proprietary information to the agency.

When combined with Citadel’s massive hedge funds, the firm said it accounts for about 8 percent of U.S. stock-market transactions and 30 percent of trading in listed equity options, according to the February letter to the SEC. Continue reading »

Opening Bell: 05.21.10

By Dealbreaker

Gensler Blames Math For ‘Flash Crash’ (WSJ)
“Usually, high volume indicates high liquidity,” Mr. Gensler said a written statement to a Senate subcommittee. “On this day, however, high volume could have been a misleading indicator of liquidity to market participants and their preprogrammed algorithms.” As a result, he said, the volume restriction “may have been ineffective and may have had an unintended market impact,” he said. Volume between 2:30 p.m. EDT and 3 p.m. was 10 times higher than the average daily trading volume in that period over the previous month, Mr. Gensler said.

German Parliment Approves European Aid Package (Reuters)
A clear majority of lawmakers in the Bundestag lower house backed the bill, but 10 members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right coalition rebelled by either voting against or abstaining, highlighting the domestic pressure she is under.

Barney Frank Thinks President Will Sign Financial Reform Bill By Fourth Of July (WaPo)
Some people don’t feel very good about that: “If you want to drive capital out of the United States, this is your bill,” Thomas J. Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. “Today we have taken a significant step in the wrong direction, and it will put American companies and our financial system at a competitive disadvantage to the detriment of our long-term economic growth.”

Doomsday Dow (NYP)
“It’s a disaster, to be frank,” said one fund chief. “Odds are getting very high for a massive event this summer. There are red flags everywhere you look.”

Goldman Sachs Fraud Settlement May Hinge on How SEC Can Justify a Penalty (Bloomberg)
Analysts predict Goldman will pay $1 billion or more to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission fraud suit that triggered a 26 percent drop in the firm’s stock. Extracting such a record-setting penalty may be easier said than done.

Citigroup Didn’t Say Morgan Stanley Was Short When Selling `Jackson’ CDO (Bloomberg)
Marketing documents for the $205 million Jackson Segregated Portfolio, underwritten by Citigroup in 2006, don’t say who picked the underlying mortgage bonds. A Morgan Stanley unit helped select the bonds, the people said, speaking anonymously because the deal was private. Six of the seven series of Jackson bonds later defaulted, costing investors more than $150 million of losses, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Do you regret having contributed to the crisis by selling complex products? (ET)
Lloyd Blankfein: I regret that we participated in transactions that brought too much leverage into the world. It led to people taking too much leverage. But those were the standards of the moment.

Krugman: Lost Decade Looming? (NYT)
“Recent data don’t suggest that America is heading for a Greece-style collapse of investor confidence. Instead, they suggest that we may be heading for a Japan-style lost decade, trapped in a prolonged era of high unemployment and slow growth.” Continue reading »

  • 20 May 2010 at 5:45 PM

Write-Offs: 05.20.10

By Bess Levin

$$$ “We are DONE FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE INVESTING IN LARGE, COMPLICATED FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.” [FTAlphaville]

$$$ When public rage mounted over Wall Street executives’ post-bailout bonuses, Obama became impatient with the defense that the payments were necessary to hold key people in place. “Obama later told a friend that the angriest he got as president in his first year was when he heard [CEO Lloyd] Blankfein” justify his compensation by saying “that Goldman [Sachs] was never in danger of collapse. That was flatly untrue,” Obama said. [LA Times]

$$$ “There will be a mini exodus out of RBS in June,” predicts David Reynolds at search firm Scott Reynolds Partners. [eF]

$$$ Hugh Hendry’s Eclectica Fund Sees Hyperinflation Via Deflationary Event; Constructs Asian Bear Portfolio [MF]

$$$ Wall Street Overhaul Measure Moves Forward as Senate Votes to Limit Debate [Bloomberg]

$$$ “No matter how we slice all the chart data, there’s no reason for anyone to have any exposure to the long side of the stock market here,” said Walter Zimmerman, chief technical analyst at United-ICAP. “We have a serious unfolding debt crisis in Europe that very much looks capable of heading to a wave of sovereign-debt defaults.” [WSJ]

$$$ El-Erian Says S&P 500 Plunge May Worsen as Europe Crisis Threatens Growth [Bloomberg]

$$$ Naked Politics Are Wall Street’s Number One Enemy [Deal Journal]

  • 20 May 2010 at 5:36 PM

Roubini: Get Ready For The Double Dip!

By Dealbreaker


Stocks to lose another 20 percent in value, according to The Doctor, who said we’re in for a “fiscal train wreck.”

  • 20 May 2010 at 3:10 PM

Ben Nelson Clueless About ATMs

By Zachery Kouwe

Ok, so we can sort of understand the utter ignorance of many lawmakers about markets and modern finance in general. We can’t expect all of them to possess the kind of Maxine Watersesque encyclopedic knowledge of swap credit defaults and other complex derivatives.

But never using, and therefore by extension, not knowing how to use an ATM machine is just beyond dumb. I mean, how out of touch with reality do you need to be to still drive up to the bank teller, fill out a withdrawal slip and wait for the cash?

Just ask Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. Continue reading »