Comments on: Uncle Sam, the World’s Worst Trader

By: philipat

philipat — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:19:13 +0000

On a separate matter, if the US had adopted the Swedish model (Known to work) rather than the Japan model (Known not to work) the Banks would all have been temporarily Nationalised (And the Managements and Boards all fired). The returns to both Government AND the macro economy would then have been potentially even better with the savings from not paying bonuses on gratuitous spreads (Which takes a Banking genius) and from channeling financing into the real economy.

By: philipat

philipat — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:12:24 +0000

HTCMSI@BOE Gold sale

You just beat me to it, and I agree this is the most underwhelming Government trade of all. This sale of Gold at the precisely imperfect timing is now widely known amongst London Gold traders as “The Brown Bottom”!

By: How the Common Man Sees It

How the Common Man Sees It — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:19:25 +0000

That is a bad trade but I still think that the BOE selling their gold around $275 just a few years ago is still the number 1 worst trade of all times. No surprise they are a government also

By: DeDude

DeDude — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:29:01 +0000

I guess when you are negotiating with your friends to give them some of other peoples money then its not so easy to do a good job.

By: flipspiceland

flipspiceland — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:02:37 +0000

Geesh. You don’t think Buffet had inside information about how Goldman Sucks, and its employees that work at every key position in the financial world were going to juice the stock market to make his so-called ingenius bet, a sure thing?

Amazed at the naivete on this board.

You don’t actually think he was taking a risk with 5 billion do you?

By: Barry Ritholtz

Barry Ritholtz — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:20:50 +0000

LOL — that is just cold!

By: broker1

broker1 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:44:31 +0000

The Najarians are brothers, not twin brothers. There are four of them, all in varying stages of baldness. They would make a good hair club for men commercial.

By: riley

riley — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:06:27 +0000

When has the government ever done anything to generate a profit? Cronyism aside, Paulson wasn’t putting the governments money at risk, they don’t have any. If there is no capital, you don’t think of your actions in terms of the return on “investment”. The only money the government has it gets through taxation, fees and the printing press. If the government wants more money they don’t think about ways to increase their profits, they just raise taxes or acquire another printing press.

By: Dan Duncan

Dan Duncan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:11:19 +0000

Having traded 30 minutes of my time to watch Fast Money (once)….

I refute your thesis.

For I am the worst trader of all time.

By: globaleyes

globaleyes — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:08:33 +0000

WHAT do Barry Ritholtz and Jon Najarian have in common ? Answer: they BOTH spend so much time in the spotlight they both have suntans from all those digital "flashbulbs". ~~~ BR: I spend a lot of time working outdoors on the ranch. Raising thoroughbreds is hard work . . .