dobuy

Hazem al-Braikan, the Kuwaiti financier charged by the SEC for suspicious trading profits, commits suicide.

I'm a trader based in the GCC and I have to say that when I saw these "press releases" and rumors, as soon as I knew they came from Kuwait I took the opposite side of these trades, Kuwaiti's are notorious in regional markets, especially here in Dubai, of pumping & dumping, as well as spilling rumors in the market to make a quick buck.
On the issue of his "suicide"..... yeh, no comment

"I make him an offer he don' refuse. Don' worry. "

Bernie Madoff -- A Cynic's Take: Frauds within Frauds

It seems that the old adage of "takes one to know one" didnt exactly work out for some of these guys, as many investors who thought they were savy, got outsmarted....
I for one dont feel sorry for any of the investors who "thought" they were getting in on a different scam, and for the few really "clueless" people, the entry criteria for his fund makes me believe that you'd have to be brought in by someone in the know, and how can you feel sorry for someone that would refer their own friends, family or clients to such a fund. I'm just glad it wasn't some type of regulated and/or protected fund/institution, otherwise we'd see the hit to the US taxpayers going up yet again!

The Double Case for Shorting Middle East ETFs

Good idea, I dont fully agree with the premise for the Short, but I would expect a medium term decline. The best trades are the ones you dont need to think twice about, which this is, BUT do you really believe you can take any meaningful short position when the highest volume on any of those ETF's in the past 3 months being GAF with an average of 50k shares. It seems you're following the MENA regional markets, with that you'd know that you can't short as per any of the exchanges. Obviously there are ways around this, but these ETF's dont provide you with a key factor in any trade, LIQUIDITY

The best ideas are actually actionable......

Credit Card Squeeze?

Wait until US consumers go to the grocery store and their credit cards dont work, even the ones that are not at/past their credit limit....... This will be much more pronounced and significant to the US consumer. A bunch of large, overleveraged Investment Banks losing billions each doesnt matter to the average Joe; not being able to put food on the table, thats where it hurts!