Gtarras

Record Amount of U.S. Debt Ever Sold in One Week

you owe me 5 mins of my life wasted on the article which implied it will cover treasury issuance and instead used just one more opportunity to prop up gold. gold bugs are most annoying creatures ever. and not very smart and/or convincing at all. where are SA editors?

Why Banking Is Insolvent

Karl, why dont you do some home work before hitting that "send" button? There are about 70 million home in the US, with roughly 52 million mortgaged ones.

there was no need to read the rest of your piece.

'Cash on the Sidelines' Should Be 'Investors on the Sidelines'

oh, please, so much cyber ink. just made me even more confused. just look at this chart with history of "cash on the sidelines:

www.ritholtz.com/blog/.../

should clear it all up.

It's Time to Sell Equities and Look to These 3 Areas

personally, i am waiting until December to find out if dollar really is trash.

Bill Gross: Sell Equities, Buy Treasuries

"New normal" = "This time its different"

never works this way.

Is Putin's Pledge Positive for Russia ETFs?

TRF ran by Mobius. Be careful with it though, it is a closed end fund, and it currently trades at a premium to NAV (people are betting that Mobius can deliver alpha). I hold it it though. Another thing I do not like about it is it pays dividends (thats right), which are taxable. I'd prefer simple appreciation. But I guess there are rules for funds to distribute some cash at the end of each year. But I think Russia is greatly undervalued, so...


On Sep 16 06:24 AM Paul Harper wrote:

> Lots of talk of $100 oil will keep investors in on RSX (imo), am
> long myself. Regarding XRU, it would seem to be too thinly traded
> for my liking.
> Are there any other Russia ETFs in the pipeline ?

10 Notes on Risk in the Markets

Bahrain Con, nice try, your name says it all. LOL!


On Sep 13 03:51 PM BAHRAIN CONNECTED wrote:

> SECRET THAT YOU WILL NEVER KNOW EVEN IF YOU DIE FOR IT (chart in
> instablog)
>
> All of you know what is VIX ( S&P 500 1 month expected volatility
> ) but none of you knows what was the VIX high in the last 100 years.
> This chart shows VIX during last decade that included Asian crisis,
> Russian debt default, South America crisis, Turkish Lira devaluation,
> Nasdaq bubble, September 11, 2001 and even 2008 market panic. Now,
> before I will tell you the secret, I ask you to take your time, do
> your own research and write on my website in the message or chat,
> what is the highest number you came upon. You can even count from
> 1929 if you want (this requires different matrice calculation, but
> 1929 didn't had the higher VIX what you can see from this chart,
> because VIX is derived from ATR average true range, which was no
> bigger than during other stock market crashes).
> Only few people know what was the highest historical VIX, I am one
> of them.
> From this chart the important levels are 21.17, 13.09, 54.87 and
> 90.06.
> Most institutional investors traded by this levels and bought stocks
> when DJIA was 6600 and VIX aroud 90, for the wrong reason and they
> are going to lose everything. I will share this secret only with
> traders who will submit their high VIX variation on my website. Good
> luck, split timing started.
>

Einhorn Expands Ratings Agency Shorts with McGraw Hill

there is no way they will be able to prove fraud. i have worked with the agencies for a decade. ALL OF THEIR METHODOLOGIES ARE TRANSPARENT. they never made them a secret. those who REALLY WANTED to, could download CRA's models and assumptions from their websites. HOW CAN YOU PROVE FRAUD IF YOU COULD RATE THESE SECURITIES AT HOME YOURSELF? yes, many people lost money, but i firmly believe it was due to a gross negligence on CRA's part, and not fraud. and even more negligence on investor's part. i do not know anybody thoughtful who really thought the AAA CDO pieces were really AAA. as a matter of fact many modelers made fun of the agencies' models. so what? people simply did not do their DD. all IMO.

5 Reasons to Avoid the Gold Rush

here is my observation: i noticed than folks who argue in favor of gold are usually old school, grey haired kind. my take on that is the younger generation grew up with other tools that the author mentions and simply do not see value in gold as a hedge. well, maybe as one of the many currently available. i personally am on with Buffet on it, and while dollars are fiat, same is gold. i can not eat it, etc etc. but i can easily convert my fiat money into something valuable... in short, i dont get gold bugs. and personally will be using TBT, TIPS etc as inflation hedge.

The Top 20 Russian Companies

i'm surprised MTS is not mentioned. ticker MBT. look at dividend alone, $2.71 in 2008, today it pps is at $46.

The Top 20 Russian Companies

most of them weren't even listed anywhere in 1998, lol. i'd be careful shorting them now, with PEs in low single digit ranges, and very remote risk of currency trouble like 98.


On Sep 07 08:54 AM NUCLEAR1929 wrote:

> all this top20 are excellent shorts, i remember their 1998 prices

Ratings Agencies Lose Free Speech Immunity

"Potentially, there is negligence and bad faith involved. If I were the rating agencies, I would argue this was merely a good faith error, and highlight how conventional their opinions were by referencing contemporaneous statements by academics, regulators, investors, legislators, bankers, even Robert Shiller (the famous 'housing bear' whose meek warning highlights how common the insanity was). "

their models and assumptions were very transparent and available to anybody interested. the folks who blame them for the losses they suffered never cared to check them, i guess, and now are looking for somebody to blame and point fingers at. i am not saying that the CRAs did not screw up. they did, big time. but their errors are not as criminal as many people are trying to make them out to be.

Ratings Agencies Lose Free Speech Immunity

" am very sympathetic to the Rating Agencies because I know that in general Moody's is filled with thoughtful, sincere people, who because of their culture, have better ethics than your average investment banker. "

absolutely agree with your assessment of the employees at the CRAs. i personally know a lot of these folks and they are much much more honest than your average banker.

When to Be a Contrarian

great article. what is the best source in your opinion to go about getting the data that tells you how much institutions are invested in the market?

When to Be a Contrarian

expect a lot of angry bears trashing your piece!