“You will never see as many great women investors or traders as men. Period. End of story. And the reason why is not because they’re not capable. They’re very capable. Like, one of my No. 1 rules as an investor is as soon as my manager, if I find out that manager is going through divorce, redeem immediately. Because the emotional distraction that comes from divorce is so overwhelming. The idea that you could think straight for 60 seconds and be able to make a rational decision is impossible, particularly when their kids are involved…Take a girl that was my age [20s] at that point in time, particularly back in the 70s. I can think of two that actually started E.F. Hutton with me. Within four years, by 1980, right when I was getting ready to launch my company they both got married. Then they both had, which in my mind is as big of a killer as divorce is, they both had children. And as soon as that baby’s lips touched that girl’s bosom, forget it. Every single investment idea, every desire to understand what’s going to make this go up or go down is going to be overwhelmed by the most beautiful experience which a man will never share about a mode of connection between that mother and that baby. I just see it happen over and over.” [BI]
Bess Levin
Posts by Bess Levin
Paul Tudor Jones Has Theory On Women Traders, Strangely Graphic Description Of Breastfeeding To Share
By Bess Levin
“Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, liebe Aktionäre” [Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders]. “Herzlich willkommen zur Hauptversammlung der Deutschen Bank” [A warm welcome to Deutsche Bank's annual general meeting]. Deutsche Bank’s co-chief executive, Anshu Jain, Thursday awed shareholders by giving a two-page introductory speech at the bank’s annual shareholders meeting in…German. It was the moment some shareholders had been waiting for. At last year’s AGM, some German investors had voiced concern as to whether they would need to learn English in order to understand the newly elected co-chief executive of “their bank.” Mr Jain, an Indian-born with a British passport, took office almost a year ago after the shareholder’s meeting, along with co-chief executive Juergen Fitschen, a native German speaker. [WSJ]
On the heels of this, the Aussies have taken an ax to (weekend) food allowances and its (junior) mistmakers, for one, are having none of it! Read more »
Twitter Unrolls Security Feature That Makes It Slightly More Difficult To Hack Into [Insert News Organization Here] And Crash The Market
By Bess Levin
After continued high-profile security breaches over the past year, Twitter Inc. on Wednesday announced it will bring increased security features to users, a way to further verify a user’s identity when logging in to his or her profile…The process is much like other two-factor authentication services across the Web. When a user tries to log in to his or her profile, they are asked to provide a cellphone number. Twitter sends an SMS message to that phone, and the user is asked to enter that code to continue the login. The new feature is optional, and must be turned on inside the settings menu…The new feature comes in the wake of a string of widely publicized hacks of visible Twitter accounts, including those owned by news outlets like the Financial Times, the Guardian and others. Most recently, when the Associated Press account was hacked, a single alarmist tweet was enough to send U.S. stock markets into a tailspin, plunging the Dow by upwards of 150 points in a matter of minutes. [WSJ, earlier]
Area Man Can’t For The Life Of Him Fathom Why Investors Would Want To Take Their Money And Run From SAC
By Bess Levin
As you may have heard, SAC Capital is facing some legal trouble at the moment. In addition to the nine current or former employees who have “been linked to insider trading while working at the firm, including four who have pleaded guilty to crimes,” it’s apparently not out of the realm of possibility that the feds will go after founder Steve Cohen on RICO charges. In light of all that, it’s not so shocking to hear that some clients are contemplating submitting redemption requests for the June 3 deadline, on top of the $1.7 billion investors requested to pull earlier in the year. Then you have Ed Butowsky, who is 1. Thinks now more than ever is the time to double down on the Big Guy and 2. Can’t wrap his mind around the notion that investors would look at SAC and see anything but a surefire win. Read more »
Would it surprise you to know that a boiler room operation that doesn’t let junior employees sit down would instruct its employees to cold call potential investors using lines from a script that include such “power phrases” as “This account will come back to you in spades” and “Give me just 1% of your trust and confidence and I will earn the other 99%”? That a place whose founder thought making cameos in Shia LaBeouf movies was a good idea would tell those same employees to say things like “If I am half right, we go out for a steak dinner on you…is that fair enough?”? That that same founder, who has been charged with fraud, in addition to intimidation and harrassment (because he threatened to run over a broker), would coach his staff to respond to someone saying they need to discuss a possible investment with their wife with the line “Let’s face it, if you go home and tell your wife that you want to invest with a broker whom you don’t know very well, chances are you will be hit with a frying pan and spend the night on the couch”? Probably not! And, yet, it is still an amazing thing to behold. John Thomas Financial’s full pitchbook of proprietary comebacks and “closers” can be found here. Our favorites: Read more »
The real JD ended up faring pretty well for himself; the inflatable one, pictured above with noted Bank Reform Bitch,* who gathered outside 270 Park with other other activists today to protest Dimon keeping the his chairman title, can’t say the same thing! Read more »
Charlie Gasparino Isn’t Saying He Was Responsible For The Marathon Being Canceled But They Probably Would Have Run It If He Kept Quiet
By Bess Levin
It may not be light beach reading, but Charlie didn’t earn his place on the Wall Street by writing children’s stories. “I pissed off a lot of Manhattanites when I said the marathon needed to be canceled before everybody realized how things were in Staten Island and Jersey,” he says. “The next day they called it off. Not because of me, but the racket I made didn’t hurt.” [DMNYC; Earlier: What Fate Awaits The Next People To Question Charlie Gasparino's Reporting?]
Earlier today, the Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors are considering charging SAC Capital as “a criminal enterprise, using a powerful legal tool employed against the mafia and drug gangs,” i.e. the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The use of RICO would give the government considerably more time to make a case against SAC, as it means prosecutors could “file charges in connection with crimes committed over the past decade, as long as any act that is part of the alleged enterprise occurred within the past five years,” whereas this July marks the deadline for bringing securities fraud charges involving July 2008 trading in Elan and Wyeth by the fund.
The best part of this story, naturally, involves Charlie Gasparino, first to report the RICO angle yesterday, despite, he says, the denials of a SAC representative, whose legs CG is currently threatening to break, via Twitter. Read more »
Jamie Dimon Pretty Happy He Didn’t Fire Off That Resignation Letter Last Night After His Second Bottle Of Wine
By Bess Levin
He said he was going to quit if stripped of the chairman role, and god damn it, he meant it but luckily: 1. It did not come to that and 2. He got distracted watching that Harlem Shake video Lloyd sent him and fell down a rabbit’s hole of different versions on YouTube, waking up this morning with his face on the keyboard and an email that began “I believe it was John Pierpont Morgan who famously said, ‘You can all go fuck yourselves’” saved to drafts. Read more »
California Jeweler Who Traded A Rolex, Unmarked Envelopes Of Cash For Inside Information Re: Herbalife, Skechers In Pretty Good Spirits For Someone Who Just Plead Guilty To Felony Charges
By Bess Levin
Which may or may not have something to do with someone hitting the jackpot this weekend/having big money riding on June’s Belmont Stakes. Come on Itsmyluckyday, daddy needs a new source of income/money to cover up to $250,000 in fines! Read more »
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Hedge Funds
Steve Cohen Considering Kicking All Investors Not Named Steve Cohen Out Of His Fund
By Bess Levin
After five years under investigation for insider trading, Steven Cohen is considering proposing a deal to prosecutors that would shut his $15 billion hedge-fund firm to outside investors, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Cohen has discussed an agreement under which his SAC Capital Advisors LP would admit wrongdoing but wouldn’t be prosecuted unless it broke the law again, said the person, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. As part of the deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement, Cohen would close the Stamford, Connecticut-based firm to outside investors and make it a family office that manages his personal fortune. SAC Capital probably would also pay fine. [Bloomberg]
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Sponsored Content
SoFi Answers the Call to Refinance Student Loans and Provides Unique Community Benefits
This is a guest post written by SoFi’s CEO, Mike Cagney.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Recently, there’s been a lot of talk amongst leaders in Washington about how to improve the painful process of repaying student loans. At SoFi, we feel your pain and work hard to offer more flexible, more affordable options for our borrowers. One idea that’s getting a lot of attention is increasing the options for refinancing debt after graduation. The only lender currently focused on refinancing private and federal student loans is SoFi.
We recognized early on that borrowers who have made timely payments on their loans, graduated from school, and have a job should be able to refinance their student loans at a lower interest rate. This may be why, after resuming lending by invitation, the media became increasingly interested in what we are doing.
In a recent article posted on MainStreet.com SoFi General Counsel Rob Lavet had this to say about SoFi’s ReFi products: Read more »
You know what they say: You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your financial planner. Or something like that. One of the great things of being in charge of your money is choosing who (if anyone) will help you manage it. The choice isn’t always an easy one. How will you know that your planner is reputable and trustworthy?
These five red flags may be good indications of whether the financial planner sitting across from you is someone you should trust with your money. LearnVest Planning also provides an innovative 7-step program for your money where you work one-on-one with a financial planner. To see if this program is right for you, start with a free financial consultation.
1. She Isn’t Certified
“There are a lot of good planners out there who aren’t Certified Financial Panners™,” says Samantha Vient, CFP®, of LearnVest Planning Services. “However, CFPs® are required to adhere to the CFP® Board’s standards of professional conduct.We believe it’s always a good idea to work with someone who has the CFP® designation, which is issued after completing a CFP® Board-approved personal financial planning curriculum, passing a rigorous exam issued by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, meeting experience requirements and passing an ethics and background check.
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