iBankCoin
18 years in Wall Street, left after finding out it was all horseshit. Founder/ Master and Commander: iBankCoin, finance news and commentary from the future.
Joined Nov 10, 2007
23,433 Blog Posts

Justice!

Boy are they gonna get Thain, huh? After a “few trill” in losses, NY Attorney General, Cuomo, is getting tough—opening up an investigation of sorts— against the man who likes to decorate his office with elaborate things. What a fucking joke.

How about Angelo Mozilo, Stan O’Neil, Sandy Weill, The Bear Sterns crew?

I have a novel idea: instead of going after the guy who bought the $1,400 trash can, how about going after the guy who destroyed the infrastructure of capitalism, via knee capping the banks with CDO’s and other financial tools of fuckery?

How about that guy?

While Dick Fuld, Jimmy Kayne and the boys sip pina coladas on some square beach, in the middle of nowhere, little ol’ Thain will be receiving uppercuts to the scrotum, via witch hunt.

Can you say scapegoat?

As for the markets:

It’s business as usual: oil is in the shitter and XOM is up. Nothing to see here, carry on.

I’m sick of rehashing the news for you ingrates. Go pick up the newspaper and find out what’s going on. All I care about are my positions and, thus far, they are not responding to the laws of reason.

Who buys commercial Re, in the midst of a commercial Re funding crisis? Who are these people?

Anyway, I have a lot of cash on the “sidelines,” a little more than 50%. So, there is a strong possibility that I may buy something, like TLT—a true Costanza trade.

Almost everyone I know is shorting t-bills. At the same time, I hear grumblings that the Fed is very unhappy with the recent spike in yields. As a result, they may take their communist printing press and use it to buy t-bills. Oh, what a mess.

Therefore, TLT may be worth a floater.

And, finally, I am a firm believer in buying DUG, ERY and SRS on dips.

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39 comments

  1. jeff

    Don’t bet against Rockefeller.

    XOM is powerful

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  2. Ass Napkin Mike

    FLY is GOD

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  3. mdawsz

    How do you justify buying these inverse ETF’s for periods greater than a few days?? You should realize that the compounding is working against you, hard.

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  4. Granpa

    I had to mute the TV, I had a hat trick of asshats on CNBC.

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  5. Moses

    Ass Napkin Mike will rot in hell for his unrepentant blasphemy.

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  6. Yogi & Boo Boo

    Wow. TLT. Interesting.

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  7. Yogi & Boo Boo

    Granpa – lol. Can you say “asshat hat trick” three times really fast?

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  8. The Fly

    Well, I average down with larger share amounts, into a lull in volatility.

    When volatility reemerges and the underlying securities go down, I sell them.

    Pretty simple.

    In other words, not everyone is a day trader. Also, not everyone buys all at one price.

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  9. charlie

    Speaking of the news, you know things are getting worse when ShawmWow and Snuggy commercials are airing on prime time TVL

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28869549/

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  10. TheArtist

    Rainbow Trout, green beans, candied beets, fresh pineapple.

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  11. mdawsz

    Fly, what you just said does not guarantee you will make money when the underlying securities go down.

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  12. DannyBoy

    Bernake has said he will start buying long dated T-Bills. TLT has been hit hard the past week. I’m in wiith a tight stop.

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  13. Juice

    I sold my TBT 45+ … instead of going Costanza with TLT, ala le Fly, I’ll hope to get TBT back sub 42.50

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  14. The Fly

    SHAM WOW

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  15. Vince The ShamWow Guy

    I win!!!

    You’ll say WOW!! every time.

    Sham-WOW!!

    Billy Mays is so third tier.

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  16. The Fly

    mdawz:

    It works for me. Now, you can go take your little spreadsheet and scurry about discussing the imperfections of inverse etf’s all you want. I am fully aware of how stupid they are.

    However, I am in the middle of building up a few positions in them. So, therefore, shut the fuck up and go eat a hot dog.

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  17. T MOE

    That guy should have slapped Melissa F in the face with the sham wow after she pured the water on him. Now that would have been good tv

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  18. T MOE

    While they are at it. Go after Franklin Raines who loss billions at Fannie but got off b/c he was a clintonite.

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  19. mdawsz

    Just tryin to help a guy out.

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  20. Jeff Macke

    This market is churning like it just made a huge runup.

    Doesn’t appear to be any shamwow left for the bulls.

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  21. Wiglebot

    comparing ideas from friends and a few simple rules is the way of the best traders ever.

    I am a data mining addict. But that is not what ever made me money.

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  22. Gwar

    High 5 to ZIONs

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  23. shamwow now brown cow.

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  24. Aris

    i’m about 25% long via FCX, 25% short via DUG, because XOM is fucking bullshit, and 50% in cash. i also bought a few shares of WFC as nothing more than an earnings gamble.

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  25. Aris

    fuck, man, shamwow is so awesome.

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  26. Aris

    ticker: SHAM

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  27. Thunderpup

    It’s actually quite genius, what we had planned all along. Fire up the printing presses to buy long bonds when our Asian friends look like they won’t buy them anymore, and money is being destroyed as fast as you can print it. Our Asian friends can’t sell bonds now with cargo ships lined up like groupies at a pre-aids Led Zeppelin concert.

    Devalue all our debt with cheap paper with no risk of inflation after everyone buys your debt – ah the perks of having the world’s reserve currency. Nixon really was a devious genius after all. Sure, it’s a one-shot sucker’s deal designed to put a cheap Lexus in every precious Baby Boomer McMansion garage, but we’ll eventually figure out some other way to keep the world slaving away for us.

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  28. the prof

    bears should take this merely because the bulls are running out of ammo, based on the fact that the put/call is considerably lower than usual. a spike up to r2 should put the coffin nail in, looking to end the day closer to 8 on dow…

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  29. Quiet Storm

    “uppercuts to the scrotum”. love it.

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  30. The Fly

    Thank you, Good Sir, I will never learn, I suppose.

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  31. Juice

    Doug Kass writes Warren Bees obit, schadenfreude style:

    Kass: Is This the End of Warren Buffett?
    By Doug Kass
    RealMoney Silver Contributor
    1/27/2009 10:59 AM EST
    URL: http://www.thestreet.com/p/newsanalysis/investing/10460070.html

    This blog post originally appeared on RealMoney Silver on Jan. 27 at 7:49 a.m. EST.

    “All good things must come to an end, but all bad things can continue forever.”

    — Unknown

    Last week, I suggested that Warren Buffett’s star was crashing back to earth.

    Barron’s Senior Editor Andrew Bary penned a similar piece over the weekend.

    Armed with some additional information, I have made tentative conclusions regarding the intrinsic value of Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.A) common shares.

    At year-end 2007, Berkshire’s investment portfolio had a cost of $39.2 billion and a market value of $75 billion. Since the end of third quarter 2008, the value of Berkshire’s investment portfolio has experienced a pronounced drop.

    Berkshire’s six investments listed below have fallen by over $16 billion in value; this is more than just a bump in the road:

    1. Wells Fargo (WFC) closed at $37.53 on Sept. 30, 2008. Last week, it closed at $15.87. Berkshire owns 290 million shares, a drop of $6.3 billion dollars.

    2. American Express (AXP) closed at $35.43 on Sept. 30, 2008. Last week, it closed at $16.00. Berkshire owns 151 million shares, a drop of $2.9 billion dollars.

    3. Coca-Cola (KO) closed at $52.88 on Sept. 30, 2008. Last week, it closed at $42.20. Berkshire owns 200 million shares, a drop of $2.1 billion dollars.

    4. Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) closed at $92.43 on Sept. 30, 2008. Last week, it closed at $63.32. Berkshire owns 63 million shares, a drop of $1.8 billion dollars.

    5. ConocoPhillips (COP) closed at $73.25 on Sept. 30, 2008. Last week, it closed at $48.10. Berkshire owns 60 million shares, a drop of $1.5 billion dollars.

    6. U.S. Bancorp (USB) closed at $36.02 on Sept. 30, 2008. On Jan. 20, 2008, it closed at $15.34. Buffett owned 73 million shares, a drop of $1.5 billion dollars.

    Note: These losses do not include the recent purchase of General Electric (GE) and Goldman Sachs (GS) preferreds and Berkshire’s large and so far unprofitable foray into shorting puts on the major stock indices.

    If one triangulates Buffett’s comments in his annual reports during the late 1990s, he seems to view Berkshire’s intrinsic value as the sum of its investments per share plus approximately 12 times pretax profits, excluding all income from investments.

    Given many of my concerns expressed initially in March 2008, I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that the above calculation of intrinsic value is too liberal. Considering the high cost of Berkshire’s investment style drift into derivatives (massive short put positions), Buffett’s refusal to sell and his apparent lack of recognition that investment moats no longer exist in some of his largest investments (especially in banking), I now feel that Berkshire’s valuation will steadily suffer, despite the long-term allegiance of its investors who are geared toward evaluating the company over decades, not years. Indeed Berkshire, in the fullness of time, might suffer the same fate of many other listed closed-end equity mutual funds; its shares could trade at a discount to its investment value per share — plus some multiple to pretax profits.

    I have worshiped at the altar of Warren Buffett since the late 1970s — ever since an investor and acquaintance, Conrad Taft, introduced me to his investment methodology and style at Berkshire Hathaway. Indeed my writings over the last seven years have often been punctuated with Buffett-isms. I have repeatedly objected to, scoffed at and refuted criticisms of Buffett’s strategy on this site and elsewhere. That said, the rationale behind avoiding/shorting Berkshire Hathaway’s common stock must be segregated from my respect/worship of the greatest investment icon of the last half century.

    — Doug Kass, March 10, 2008

    As I wrote almost a year ago, Warren Buffett is justifiably revered by investors around the world, and I consider myself one of those who have worshiped at his investing altar over the past three decades. Nevertheless, from my perch, Buffett’s salad days seem to be over; the only question that remains is the timing and to what degree investors will abandon the Oracle of Omaha.

    Reflecting some of the above concerns and since late September 2008, Berkshire’s shares have fallen from $145,000 a share to $85,000 a share. There is no apparent end to the decline in sight.

    All good things, it seems, in markets and life, must come to an end.

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  32. Jeff Macke

    Keep in mind as soon as I take a strong short position men in hazmat suits knitted from shamwow’s will be at my fucking door.

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  33. TraderCaddy

    A thought.
    Since the 2X and probably the 3X etfs are crapola if held over a long period of time, how about say shorting an equal $$ amount of DUG,DIG,FAS,FAZ,etc, and just sit back and wait as they decline and decay over time.
    Good idea?

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  34. Phil_from_Brazil

    I thought I had seen it all.
    Vince is now peddling the shamwow EN ESPAÑOL!

    “Sabias que en Alemania hacen cosas buenas?”

    CLASSIC.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZxyqMrb0uU

    (Fly, this is worthy of being published up at the top on your next tab — hilarious).

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  35. Jim Cramer From Lookout Tower
    Jim Cramer From Lookout Tower

    All clear!!

    BUY, BUY, BUY!!!!

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  36. Thunderpup

    Warren Buffett’s main concern now is what’s in Becky Quick’s pants.

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  37. Thunderpup

    Ocho Shamwows por veinte dollars – hilarious.

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  38. TheArtist

    Warren Buffett’s days of glory are over with completely and will never return in his remaining life, end of story.
    All kings wither and die, his time on the throne has come and gone, he had a good run but it, for him is over.

    Warren is no longer on my watch list.

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  39. TV Producer

    Maybe some day Buffett will be relegated to one of those cheap reality shows with former stars who live together, like the guy from “Chips” and the “actress” that used to be on “Baywatch.”

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