IN 2008 just over $270m-worth of art by Damien Hirst was sold at auction, a world record for a living artist. By 2009 Mr Hirst’s annual auction sales had shrunk by 93%—to $19m—and the 2010 total is likely to be even lower. The collapse in the Hirst market can partly be ascribed to the recession. But more important are the lingering effects of a two-day auction of new work by Mr Hirst that Sotheby’s launched in London on September 15th 2008, the first session of which took place the very evening that Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. The average auction price for a Hirst work in 2008 was $831,000. So far in 2010 it is down to $136,000. [The Economist]
Archive for September 2010
Not saying, LLOYD, just saying LLOYD– it’s parked outside bankruptcy court at 40 Broadway circa now. Just putting it out there. Continue reading »
Financial Services Employee Who Didn’t Know There Were Rules Against Putting Your DNA In A Co-Worker’s Water Bottle Pleads Not Guilty
By Bess Levin
Remember Michael Kevin Lallana? Name not ringing a bell? Okay try this: remember the Northwestern Mutual Investment Services employee who in January allegedly somehow got his jizz in a bottle, left it on a colleague’s desk where she drank it, got sick, and threw it out? And then a couple months later, allegedly released more “material” in the same lady’s drink, which she again drank, but this time paused to ask herself, “Am I crazy, or does this water have semen in it,” before sending it off to a lab to verify her suspicions? He’s pleaded not guilty to six misdemeanors. Continue reading »
Something that’s never got much mention in the press is that in addition to their formidable investing savvy, many an employee of SAC Capital has been behind some of the greatest upsets in sports history. February 11, 1990. Tokyo, Japan. Buster Douglas versus Mike Tyson, Douglas is 35:1 underdog. Douglas prevails. Why? I can’t say his name but ask anyone who was there and they’ll tell you the story of a young pup from the Stamford back office whose fluffing skills between rounds Douglas to this day credits with his win. Summer Olympics 2000. Sydney, Australia. Rulon Gardner defeats Alexander Karelin. Rulon Gardner’s victory at the Sydney Olympics is the greatest upset in wrestling history. Gardener had no wins on the Olympic level, whereas Karelin had been undefeated for the last decade. Who gave Gardener some last minute tips on his Half Nelson? SAC’s head of HR at the time. March 1991. NCAA semifinal game, Duke versus UNLV. UNLV was heavily favored and hadn’t lost a game all year. Who snuck into the locker room at half time and promised the Blue Devils “hookers on the house– and these won’t talk” if they pulled out a W? A trader from SAC, always ahead of the curve. Super Bowl III, 1969. New York Jets defeat Baltimore Colts. Who convinced the entire stadium to do a topless wave the likes of which the NFL had never seen, which in turn got the team from New York pumped like no other? Who consulted on Johnny Weir’s 2010 Olympic ensembles, even throwing in a hand at the sewing machine at the last hour? Who said MORE NETTING when everyone else said less? You know the answer to all those things.
Which leads us to next year’s NBA championship. You probably thought the New Jersey Nets didn’t have a shot, right? Wrong! Not now that they’ve got this secret weapon.
Think of Milton Lee as a technical investor. Except instead of analyzing stocks or commodities, he is analyzing basketball players. A former Wall Street equities trader who has done stints at ING and S.A.C Capital, Lee has joined the refurbished New Jersey Nets as the team’s director of basketball operations. His job is to crunch the statistics of Nets players, looking not just at their scoring percentages but also at their defensive efforts and where on the court they are most successful at hitting the net.
I can think of one guy who loves this idea. Continue reading »
Ryan Payne is a former investment banker who was laid off from his job at the Jordan Edmiston Group in April 2008 and has since remained unemployed. In the beginning, he sent out dozens of resumes and “would’ve done anything” to get his job back, which is ironic given how much he hated it when he had it, particularly the long hours and lack of a social life that resulted in him sleeping under his desk on his birthday in 2007. With over $100,000 in student loans and consumer debt, the Payne, who holds his JD/MBA, moved home and things were pretty dark for a while. “At one point, if I’d had a gun, I wouldn’t be talking to you now,” he told the LA Times. Then one day Payne said fuck this, pulled himself “out of the job orbit” and has never looked back. Continue reading »
“I expect gold to double. At least to double,” says Adam Gold, a Brooklyn filmmaker, who’s at the East Village bar Arlo and Esme, mingling at a meet up event with fellow supporters of Texas congressman Ron Paul. Paul is a big fan of gold and believes ever since the U.S. went off the gold standard in the 1970s, the government has been able to print money “out of thin air,” eroding the value of the dollar. Adam Gold invests in the yellow metal through a broker, who holds it on the filmmaker’s behalf in vaults around the country. “I’m not yet to the point, although I may well get there, where I actually physically hold the gold in a safe in my apartment,” Gold says. Cris Rodriguez, on the other hand, does keep his gold nearby, at an undisclosed location. The 29-year-old NYU graduate, who works in music production, says every three months he scrapes together enough money to buy coins directly from gold dealers in Manhattan. “I don’t have a tremendous amount of money to invest but I’d rather start off as a base owning the physical gold,” Rodriguez says. [WNYC via DI]
In Wall Street Sequel, Stone Gives Voice To Outrage (NYT)
“You know, half the people in this place could be prosecuted.” Oliver Stone, the film director, was sitting across from me over a late lunch in the Grill Room of the Four Seasons restaurant in Midtown Manhattan last week. In one corner was Stephen Schwarzman; Felix Rohatyn, a special adviser to the chairman of Lazard, was leaving as I was coming in, as was Barry Diller. And Sanford Weil— “the mother of all evil,” Mr. Stone said with a wry smile — had just dashed out. Mr. Stone added, “It’s silly to be simplifying and say Wall Street is evil,” pausing for a moment before stopping to correct himself. “Goldman Sachs is evil, maybe….Look, Wall Street’s gone crazy. It’s banking on steroids,” Mr. Stone said, getting a bit irritated. “Banks don’t mean what they did. When I was a kid, you had a savings account; you made 3 to 4 percent. Now you make zero, and Goldman Sachs is a bank holding company.”
Geithner Calendar: Met Blankfein More Often Than Pelosi, Reid, McConnell, Boehner (HP)
Lloyd Blankfein has shown up on Geithner’s calendar at least 38 times through March since the Treasury Secretary took office in January 2009, three more entries than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and 13 more than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to a copy of Geithner’s daily log recently published online by the Treasury Department.
AIG In Talks To End Aid From US (WSJ)
Under the plan, which could commence as early as the first half of 2011, the Treasury Department is likely to convert $49 billion in AIG preferred shares it holds into common shares, a move that could bring the government’s ownership stake in AIG to above 90%, from 79.8% currently, the people familiar said. The common shares would then be gradually sold off to private investors, a move that would reduce U.S. ownership and potentially earn the government a profit if the shares rise in value.
BofA Chief Shares His Growth Vision (WSJ)
The plan, Mr. Moynihan’s strongest attempt to present a new vision for the bank, revolves around more cross-selling to customers, companies and institutional investors who interact with the retail, corporate and wealth-management parts of the bank. Mr. Moynihan admits the concept isn’t exactly exciting at first blush. “It’s just hard work,” he said in an interview
SEC Questions Trading Crusade as Market Makers Disappear (Bloomberg)
Mary Schapiro called on the agency last week to examine whether the loss of “old specialist obligations” has hurt investors after measures such as trading stocks in penny increments cut the number of those firms on the New York Stock Exchange to 5 from 25 in 2000. With market making now dominated by hundreds of automated traders with few rules for when they must buy and sell, the SEC will consider ways to keep the biggest from abandoning the market at the first sign of trouble.
Michael Lewis: Hedge-Fund Man Finds Inner Lion in Outer Space (Bloomberg)
To: The Loyal Investors of The Fund
From: The Manager
Like a lot of hedge-fund guys, I’ve recently endured what might be misconstrued as a nervous breakdown. Before CNBC or the New York Times or some other rag grabs the story and distorts it, I want to tell you about it myself — and explain not only my disappointing returns but also my prolonged absence. Just so you get it straight. Continue reading »
$$$ “I am a huge bull on this country,” Warren Buffett said today in remarks to the Montana Economic Development Summit. “We will not have a double-dip recession at all. I see our businesses coming back almost across the board.” [Bloomberg]
$$$ Contrarians Find Betting on Recovery a Lonely Job [NYT]
$$$ Goldman Analyst: Ending The Bush Tax Cuts Will Hurt The Economy [CNBC]
$$$ 5 Pieces Of Advice [FINS]
$$$ Recruiters Pick State Schools, Pass On Ivies [WSJ]
He’s one of the most well-known hedge fund managers in the world, praised prett-ay, prett-ay, prett-ay frequently for his market savvy but the FT has decided that Jorge just doesn’t get the props he deserves. Continue reading »
Eli Manning pretending to trade today on the floor of BGC Partners today.
