Shakes

Where Is Madoff's $50 Billion?

it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. no doubt there is $30bn+ in principal lost. not only are there many families who have kept their staggering losses a secret so far, but what the media is missing is that most of this stuff was leveraged to the hilt. once the trades these assets were linked to start having to unwind, we're going to have mass selling in q1 just like we did in q3.
where the money is is anyones guess. no doubt he acted with his sons and the whole family is in on it - anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot. in fact, i wouldn't be surprised if old man madoff has a terminal disease and is taking the fall for the sons, knowing that he only has a year or two left. it's the only logical answer here. they should all have their passports revoked until further notice - the govt is bumbling along yet again...

Don't Be Scammed by Madoff Investor Sob Stories

PBB said in part :

"3. Its not as if other fund 'managers' weren't delivering similar, if not greater returns over the past decade. Paulson (John, not Henry); Paul Jones; George Soros (his returns were more volatile, perhaps), and even lesser-known people such as Israel Englander's Millenium Partners..."

I'm sorry, how is this an argument? The fact of the matter is that if I couldn't figure out how these guys were making their money, and they refused even a moderate level of transparency (not to mention the self-custody or shell accounting firm), then you could be damn sure I or any other rational investor wouldn't invest. That is except for 3 reasons : a) sheer stupidity ("A fool and his money are soon parted" - Thomas Tusser), b) no respect for your own or someone elses money, or c) complicity.

a) stupidity - self-explanatory. there are lots of people who didn't invest. if you did, and b and c don't apply, then you shouldn't be making any decisions about investing. if you delegated responsability, this applies as well - nobody is more careful with your money than YOU. people need to get educated and take responsibility for their actions, rather than crying "victim" all the time.

b) respect - a lot of these people didn't work for a dime of it, and the managers who were entrusted with a lot of it were lazy and took the easy way out by dumping a large amount of it with this madoff clown. a litttle due diligence and care could have avoided a lot of pain for all.

c) complicity - the most sinister. i would say that a majority of these banks and institutions knew that something was up. something was fishy. and they were greedy and wanted a part of it, so they went along thinking that they were part of some special club and would never get caught. there is no way that banks and huge fohf don't do their due dil before investing billions, or even millions. just doesn't happen. see the note from ubs on friday to their clients which said:

"The investment presented the opportunity to participate in a unique return stream that combined a splitstrike option strategy with the market information of one of the world’s largest market-makers in equity
securities... In essence, the perceived edge was Madoff’s ability to gather and process market-order-flow information and use this information to time the implementation of the split strike option strategy.


this is UBP admitting to participating in what they thought was front-running. THIS IS UBP - A MAJOR SWISS BANK. unbelievable that they are so brazen to say this. the sheer arrogance of these institutions will be their downfall.


i'm neck-deep in this part of the industry, so save your comments. they people who got burned - most got what was coming to them.

self-regulation of the industry and education are the key to preventing another one of these disasters. if we come to rely on regulation to save us, we'll become lazy and another one of these will slip under the radar.

Madoff's Innocent Victims

to jimmy lathrop: you keep getting thumbs-downs because you pollute every blog you go into with your stupid website address without adding a shed of value to the conversation. why don't you say something intelligent or go away. nobody cares about your website.

Madoff's Innocent Victims

what are CHARITIES doing investing in anything even remotely like a hedge fund? that is money that was GIVEN to them to help people. they should PROTECT it, not gamble with it! it should have gone into a lock-box and stayed there until allocated to whatever cause. unbelievable. yet another example of people's disgustingly careless attitudes about the value of others money. if you don't want to lose it, invest it yourself! nobody cares more about your hard-earned dollars than YOU!

Looks Like We'll See Dow at 10K - Soon?

looks to me that the dow is testing and then breaking through to subsequently lower lows, and that we're far more likely due for 5000 than 10000...