My afternoon train reading:
• Fed’s Stress-Test Champion Reshapes Regulation of Biggest Banks (Bloomberg) see also The Volcker Rule and the Goldman Controversy (DealBook)
• Takeover Defense, Goldman Style (Circa 1960s) (Economix)
• U.S. Auto Dealers Who Survived Debacle See Record Sales (Bloomberg) but see Is Warm Weather Putting a False Shine on the Economy? (BusinessWeek)
• What Isn’t for Sale? (The Atlantic)
• Capital shortfall: A new approach to ranking and regulating systemic risks (Vox) see also Stress Tests for Zombies? Why Low Interest Rate Policy Does Not Work (Institutional Risk Analyst)
• The Man Who Broke Atlantic City (The Atlantic)
• Wikipedia Didn’t Kill Britannica. Windows Did (Wired)
• LinkedIn is the Gateway Drug to Social Media for Fin Services (HuffPo)
• Umair Haque: The Builders’ Manifesto (HBR)
• Alone in a Crowd: How Crowdfunding Could Strand Startups (Businessweek)
What are you reading?
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WTF?! DOUBLE THE FUN WITH CBOE’s VVIX
Source: CBOE
Category: Financial Press
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
Ha! Gotta love this VVIX. It’s the noisy version of the VIX. Clearly, this newest way to skin the cat is about taking profits when the deviation from the underlying VIX is statistically ‘significant’.
Some of the highlighted points on the whitepaper page are a hoot:
“The range of values of the VVIX is at a significantly higher level than that of the VIX®.” Well, yeah, it’s a higher baseline.
“Since the flash crash of May 2010, the VVIX has rarely dropped below 80.” Yeah, and since the flash crash of May 2010, the VIX has rarely dropped below 15. So . . .?
“The VVIX tends to revert to its historical mean.” Huh. A real statistics wunderkind must have written that one.
And! And! There’s a neat-o looking calculus sort of formula thingy on the page as well. Always a good selling point.
GOLDMAN HEIR SPEAKS: Greg Smith Was Right, They Ruined My Great-Grandfather’s Company
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-goldman-iii-on-greg-smith-letter-2012-3#ixzz1pE2EJdSi
In December you bet your trader whether or not the S&P could make 1250 by YE 2011.
What do you think he would would have said if you’d told him it would it 1400 in 1Q?
What would you have said?
~~~
BR: Jan 1, He flipped bearish. I flipped bullish — he lost the SPX 1400 bet
Sorry, but that PR Executive trying to tell Financial Services to use more social media is out of her mind and will inevitably get a BD or RIA a sizable violation. Record keeping is already a nightmare, even for the big guys, let alone having reps running around and posting, liking, and friending individuals and other firms.
IMHO, a smart firm prohibits all social media use…
I would recommend this report on tonight’s PBS NewsHour:
Fictional Thriller Tackles Dangers of High-Frequency Trading
PBS NEWSHOUR
By Paul Solman
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june12/highfrequency_03-15.html
One of the rare times I’ve slummed over at HuffPo, but for your reading consideration:
Lynn Szymoniak, Foreclosure Victim, Receives $18 Million For Investigating Mortgage Crisis
By Alexander Eichler
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/15/lynn-szymoniak-whistleblower-18-million_n_1347475.html
One more…
Mortgage Settlement That Divided Democrats May Have Burned Eric Schneiderman’s Bridges
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/13/mortgage-foreclosure-settlement-eric-schneiderman_n_1317272.html
Now a JP Morgan Chase whistleblower? Have to wonder if this is legit or bogus…
Here’s an excerpt:
CFTC
Comment No: 57019
Date: 3/14/2012
Dear CFTC Staff,
Hello, I am a current JPMorgan Chase employee. This is an open letter to all commissioners and regulators. I am emailing you today b/c I know of insider information that will be damning at best for JPMorgan Chase. I have decided to play the role of whistleblower b/c I no longer have faith and belief that what we are doing for society is bringing value to people. I am now under the opinion that we are actually putting hard working Americans unaware of what lays ahead at extreme market risk.
FULL LETTER:
http://comments.cftc.gov/PublicComments/ViewComment.aspx?id=57019