KevinB's Profile
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Entry: The Proposal To Bring Back Buy-And-Hold
posted by KevinB
Jun 26, 2009 5:05AM
@44 - Thanks for the info. I don't claim to be a US tax law maven!
But if this is true, WTF is Gerstner on about? Punitive taxation on very short term gains seems pretty stupid. I can understand an incentive for people to hold their stocks for a reasonable period of time, but if J6P wants to take on the quants of Wall Street with his PC and some questionable tracking software, I can't see punishing him for the one time in a hundred he gets it right.
Entry: Opening Bell: 06.26.09
posted by KevinB
Jun 26, 2009 7:56AM
Micheal Jackson was, IMHO, thrust into the spotlight too early without a healthy family to keep him sane. I personally thank God my two wonderful daughters are exceptional but under the radar. MJ's life seems to be another confirmation of the adage "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make successful". RIP
Entry: Opening Bell: 06.26.09
posted by KevinB
Jun 26, 2009 8:17AM
@10 - If you're ever able to procreate, which I seriously doubt, since that would require you to:
1 - Find a woman who likes you
2 - Have sex with her (without her protecting herself through multiple layers of latex) and
3 - Actually have an erection and an ejaculation,
you are free to contact me and tell me how well your offspring are doing. Since I put the odds on 1 are 50:50, 2 are 10:90, and 3 are 1:99, I don't expect to hear from you anytime soon.
Entry: Opening Bell: 07.06.09
posted by KevinB
Jul 06, 2009 7:46AM
At 7:38 am today, Bryan Marsal, the new CEO in charge of unwinding Lehman, admits on CNBC:
[The regulators get paid a pittance to monitor the system compared to what we pay the quants from MIT] "to circumvent the system."
Not to develop new ways to create wealth. Not to develop better algorithms than other firms. "To circumvent the system". Just another reason I want to keep my money off Wall St.
Entry: Opening Bell: 07.06.09
posted by KevinB
Jul 06, 2009 1:22PM
@44 - I agree that "exploit" is generally what people try to do with any system, but Marsal's exact word was "circumvent".
Analyst - Thanks for the support.
@10, @11 - Dicks, I bought oil at $30 and gold at $250 in 2000, and put the rest in Canadian government T-bills. Sold half the oil at $142, bought it back at $120 (unlike you tools, I admit it when I make a mistake), then sold it all at $100. Put the proceeds back in T-bills. Haven't had a drawdown in 9 years. Bet you can't say that.
Entry: Jim Cramer Knocks Another One Out Of The Park
posted by KevinB
Jul 09, 2009 8:11AM
@22 - How can anyone possibly ring up $50 mill without any assets to show for it? What could he have blown it on? I mean when he was between the lines, Lenny played baseball like no one else. How could he go off the rails?
If someone had told me this could happen to Nails, I would have snorted. I didn't think there was a snowball's chance in hell of it. I guess he's behind the 8-ball now.
Entry: Group Wants California To Smoke Its Way Back To Financial Health
posted by KevinB
Jul 09, 2009 10:14AM
Hey - legalizing booze helped us get out of the Great Depression. Legalizing pot may do the same for us this time. Just put enough downward pressure on prices at the beginning to run all the cartels out of business (who would pay $100/oz if you can get it at the government store for $25?), and then slowly hike the taxes up. Just like boiling frogs.
Entry: Lenny Dykstra Recommends Private Planes
posted by KevinB
Jul 10, 2009 4:40AM
On the 3rd page of the linked article, Lenny recommends BlueStar.
Call Gordon! Where's Bud?!
Entry: Write-Offs: 07.09.09
posted by KevinB
Jul 10, 2009 8:00AM
Did Cliff Assness just say "Someone has to stand up for incest" on CNBC?
And, post-Drury, isn't Becky dressing like a demure school girl these days?
Entry: Love Affair Between Maxine Waters And CDS Is Now Over
posted by KevinB
Jul 10, 2009 6:33PM
@92 - You're right, but I was still LMAO.
@104 - FTW!
Entry: FDIC Proposes Pay-To-Play Program For Prop Trading
posted by KevinB
Jul 15, 2009 3:02PM
Canada has about the same population as California, and only has six big banks, not one of which, by the way, came close to failing last year. I don't see why having fewer banks is necessarily a bad thing.
Entry: Bank of America "Accidentally" Charges Man 23 Quadrillion Dollars For Pack Of Cigarettes
posted by KevinB
Jul 15, 2009 3:38PM
@15 - My guess is this is some weird kind of binary overflow. Or maybe it's some programmer's revenge for being stuck in the back room and shat upon by everyone. I kinda like the latter.
Entry: Secondary Market For CA IOUs Almost Ready To Go
posted by KevinB
Jul 15, 2009 5:10PM
I expect to see this on The Daily Show and/or the Colbert Report tonight. It's just too funny to pass up.
Entry: Roubini: Some People-- CNBC-- Have Taken My Statements Out Of Context
posted by KevinB
Jul 17, 2009 9:31AM
I thought Marc Faber was "Dr. Doom". Did he die or something?
Entry: Opening Bell: 07.20.09
posted by KevinB
Jul 20, 2009 10:29AM
From this week's New Yorker magazine, Jimmy Cayne on Tim Geithner:
"The audacity of that prick in front of the American people announcing he was deciding whether or not a firm of this stature and this whatever was good enough to get a loan. Like he was the determining factor, and it’s like a flea on his back, floating down underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, getting a hard-on, saying, “Raise the bridge.” This guy thinks he’s got a big dick. He’s got nothing, except maybe a boyfriend. "
Entry: Opening Bell: 07.20.09
posted by KevinB
Jul 20, 2009 12:04PM
@29 - I don't read William Cohan; I do, however, read Malcolm Gladwell, who included the above in his latest essay.
Entry: NHL Overtakes NFL- On One Level
posted by KevinB
Sep 09, 2009 1:54PM
This is nothing new for the NHL. Harold Ballard of the Toronto Maple Leafs did time for stock fraud. Bruce McNall of the LA Kings, Peter Pocklington of the Oilers, Eugene Melnyk of the Ottawa Senators - all have been embroiled in courts for various offences. We're major league for fraud!
Entry: Michael Moore: Wall Street Still Cooking Up "Crazy Schemes" To Destroy Mankind
posted by KevinB
Sep 16, 2009 3:33PM
@47 - MM pulling his own weight?! I don't even think he can pull his own.. oh, wait, this is a family website.
Entry: The Proposal To Bring Back Buy-And-Hold
posted by KevinB
Jun 25, 2009 1:39PM
Well, up here in Canada (you remember us? the country with no banking crisis, no mortgage crisis, etc? All our current problems are a direct result of your economic implosion..but I digress), if you trade frequently with holding periods measured in milliseconds instead of months, your net profits (you get to deduct losses and commissions) are considered "ordinary income" and are taxed at regular rates. On the other hand, if you hold stocks a reasonable amount of time, and don't trade so often that you are considered a trader or dealer, any net gains are considered "capital gains", and they are included in your income at 50% of the gain.
In other words, if you hold a stock for a year, sell it for a $10,000 gain, you only add $5,000 to your taxable income for the year. At the top 43% rate, you pay $2,150 in tax, for an effective rate of 21.5%. Not exactly Gerstner's proposal, but it seems to work.
As for all the douchebags saying that this would eliminate liquidity - I've been active in markets for 25 years. I never had a problem making a trade in any listed stock in the 1980's, and unless it was an odd-lot, it was filled in less than a minute. So bend over and kiss your ignorant behinds.