Opening Bell: 5.5.17

‘50 Cent’ trading mystery focuses on $20bn London fund (FT)
Ruffer, a $20bn investment fund co-founded by Jonathan Ruffer with clients including the Church of England, has been systematically buying up derivative contracts linked to an index known as the Vix, according to four people from trading departments at banks who are familiar with the trades.

Virtu CEO Aims to Be the Good Guy of High-Speed Trading (WSJ)
“It’s not easy when you read the paper or watch TV and people are basically accusing you of criminality,” Mr. Cifu told The Wall Street Journal. “For a while I was just telling people I was a lawyer, because it was easier than trying to debate HFT with a bunch of strangers.”

Warren Buffett reveals what's holding him back from putting Berkshire's $90 billion in cash to work (CNBC)
"I mean we are investing," he said. "But [cash] is a holding position until you find something else. But the very fact that interest rates are that low makes it hard for us to buy other things because other people buy things with borrowed money and borrowed money is so cheap." He added, "If we are competing with equity money against slim equity plus a lot of debt we're at a disadvantage."

Goldman Sachs boss: City 'will stall' over Brexit risk (BBC)
I asked him if the expansion of London as a financial capital over the last three decades would go into reverse because of the Brexit process. "I don't think it will totally reverse," he told me. "It will stall, it might backtrack a bit, it just depends on a lot of things about which we are uncertain and I know there isn't certainty at the moment."

This Bonus Season Is a Dud for London Bankers (BBG)
Some 61 percent of Deutsche Bank’s employees were dissatisfied with their bonuses, followed by 52 percent at Credit Suisse Group AG and 50 percent at BNP Paribas SA, salary benchmarking company Emolument.com said in a statement, citing a survey of 1,640 people at 18 banks. At the other end of the scale, 30 percent of JPMorgan front-office workers were dissatisfied with their variable pay, and 28 percent admitted to being pleased.

At Berkshire Hathaway’s Meeting, a Good Seat Requires Tactical Brilliance (WSJ)
“Walk (run) right until you get to a set of stairs,” the manual says. “Go up the stairs.” Mr. Pysh insists that even with those directions, the group’s preferred seats are in a secret location. “It’s physically taxing to get to that area,” he said, so attendees who aren’t part of his group are unlikely to find the spot. “It’s 100% legitimate, but it’s not a way somebody would want to go.”

One of Venezuela’s Biggest Investors Would Welcome Regime Change (BBG)
“The cathartic moment of regime change will be quickly re-priced in the market,” Conelius wrote. “So as unpalatable as holding Venezuela risk may seem, this is precisely the type of time that long-term investors typically want to accumulate exposure.”

Silicon Valley’s Erlich Bachman Is a Capitalist Hero (National Review)
The loopiest, most irresponsible, and most marijuana-addled figure in the show, Erlich Bachman, is also its most essential because he embodies a boisterous, questing, very American drive for success. There’s something childlike and unhinged about him that makes it hard to imagine a counterpart in China or France. As played by T. J. Miller in a comedy performance for the ages, Bachman is America’s new capitalist superstar.

Police Say A Pigeon Made This Nest Out Of Used Syringes (HuffPo)
Canada’s Vancouver Police Superintendent Michelle Davey tweeted a picture on Wednesday showing a pile of needles in a dirty sink with three eggs on top of them. Her caption suggests the depressing-looking scene was a product of the opioid crisis.