Actions taken over the last few years by my firms, governments and society as a whole (and therefore my role) crossed a line I was no longer comfortable with. If a bank wants to let me gamble with it’s money – great, and I was fairly good at it, but I expected negative consequences to any bad decisions. I’m disgusted with a culture that now pretends it’s sole fuction is not siphoning off as much from the counter-party of last resort, the taxpayer. Perhaps that means I was naive up to this point and that has always been the game? Perhaps, but that was never my game and not what I’m happy spending my life doing.

We can all pretend and create pretexts. Claim the necessity of capital allocation and risk management. Fundamental debt management and ‘market making’ requirements. Fall back on treasury management, IPOs, capital raising, bond auctions or funding . But that’s not what today’s financial markets and the vast majority of trading is really about. It’s about sales credits and spreads. Commission and opaqueness. Bullying and power. And most importantly today’s PnL. Simply a race to make as much money as possible in as short a time period as possible.

That anybody acts on the advice of bankers, economists, forecasters or the like still blows me away. That we have reached a point where governments force their own determination and thus gamble the long-term outlook for our offspring on advice from a combination of these people coupled with such short-termism, TBTF and a clear appreciation that joe average has no clue whatsoever how much they’re being stuffed saddens me. It’s ruinous for society and something I cannot be involved in when the game is zero sum but the cards are stacked.

But good luck to you all as you choice your own paths.

I’ve been investing on my own for three years. For the year before that, I read everything I could, went to every seminar or workshop that would have me, read tons of books, blogs and whatnot. I set up a $100K trading account to – what I thought – supplement my other investments.

Simultaneously, I was passively investing (through a well-known, large regional bank’s investment arm) the bulk of my savings, cashed-in stock options, and other revenue I had bottled up over 30 years. In five short months in late 2008, that bank lost 3/4 of my nestegg – despite my pleadings to change my portfolio, the weightings and my investing profile. We’re talking a loss of about $6 mil here.

After my anger and retching had subsided somewhat, I basically “went into business” for myself, investing in well-planned option strategies and strangling or hedging every one of my trades for an average 3-4% gain. What I’m trying to say, and especially to your young Wall Street friend, is that no matter what your vocation, avocation or passion is, you will definitely hit the wall at some point. Everything will look bleak, pointless and dire. You may not even see a way out for yourself or others. Let me tell you, I was close to that point.

Boy, I agree with what you said about the contrarian angle – I personally love to short the market during times like these. EVERYONE it seems is bullish and, what I can’t believe is that we’re up over the pre-Lehman Bros. mark – all with a worse economy, with a worse job market (approx 5 million LESS jobs now than where we were in the summer of 2008!)…and most anyone you talk to says we’re out of the recession, the economy’s back on track, and hell, we “only” lost 36000 jobs last month…We’re on our way! Shit.

But other tragedies and downturns in my life (anyone gone thru a nasty divorce?) led me to think that something was better out there for me and I’ve since made back about 25% of what I lost. Simple, patient, emotionless trading – whatever your specialty or motivation – for yourself and by yourself is the only way out. I will never, ever trust anyone to handle my money again. And, save for you, Rosenberg, Mauldin, Stieglitz and few others, I will never listen to anyone again.

The sad thing about all this? The assholes that caused this mess, for the most part are still there…”–NG, above

What amazes me is, that with barely an effort expended, countless, similar, stories, outlining the Heist we have just witnessed, can be found..

and, we are still entreated to ‘defenses’ of “Buy & Hold”/”di-vesting for the Lonnng Terrrm” by the walking sufferers of Stockholm Syndrome/paid shills of the Status Quo.

“The street and the financial sector have demonstrated that it is all a game, and if you are not a player, you will lose.”–kcowan, above

LSS: for those not interested in learning how to ‘swing by the vine’, Stay out of the Jungle, lest you be ‘hung by the rope”..

The street and the financial sector have demonstrated that it is all a game, and if you are not a player, you will lose.

I don’t want to confuse who wrote what.

So you’re saying one should not worry about the gigantic unregulated CDS market, foolish deeply ingrained moral hazard, lack of political will for real financial reform, and the stupidity of the American people arguing about the wrong things?

The world will not come to an end at the next blow up?

~~~

BR: Heh heh

No, what I am explicitely saying is be patient in setting up the trade that makes that bet on the world coming to an end at the next blow up!

Somehow this quote seems appropriate.

More than any time in history, mankind faces a crossroad. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Woody Allen – 1980