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BIG SURPRISE: Facebook Has 83 Million Fake Users $FB

via sfgate.com

There may be more than 83 million fake users on Facebook, the giant social network has revealed.

In company filings published this week, it said 8.7% of its 955 million active users might not be real,according to the BBC.com.

Duplicate accounts, people who have an account in addition to a principal account, make up 4.8 percent of the “fake” accounts, as of June 30, 2012.

There are also “user-misclassified accounts” (2.4 percent) — pet accounts or a personal profile for business — and “undesirable accounts” (1.5 percent) that are intended for spamming, etc.

Fake users are a huge concern to Facebook because it generates a majority of its revenue from advertising. BBC.com says Facebook is coming under increased scrutiny over the worth of its advertising model which promotes the gathering of “likes” from users.

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Knight Capital Tanks 39% Pre-market, Company Says They Lost a Little Over $400 Million After Trading Out of the Entire Glitch Positions

Initially up on the news; Knight Capital is down nearly 40% as the company says they may need to raise money to strengthen their capital position. The company says they have removed the software that caused yesterday’s trading glitch in over 140 stocks.

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FLASH: FREE COCAINE FROM THE FED UNTIL LATE-2014!!!! (STATEMENT) BUT…

No new QE…and stocks are down. Hawkish?

For immediate release

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June suggests that economic activity decelerated somewhat over the first half of this year. Growth in employment has been slow in recent months, and the unemployment rate remains elevated. Business fixed investment has continued to advance. Household spending has been rising at a somewhat slower pace than earlier in the year. Despite some further signs of improvement, the housing sector remains depressed. Inflation has declined since earlier this year, mainly reflecting lower prices of crude oil and gasoline, and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee expects economic growth to remain moderate over coming quarters and then to pick up very gradually. Consequently, the Committee anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only slowly toward levels that it judges to be consistent with its dual mandate. Furthermore, strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks to the economic outlook. The Committee anticipates that inflation over the medium term will run at or below the rate that it judges most consistent with its dual mandate.

To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at the rate most consistent with its dual mandate, the Committee expects to maintain a highly accommodative stance for monetary policy. In particular, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions–including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run--are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.

The Committee also decided to continue through the end of the year its program to extend the average maturity of its holdings of securities as announced in June, and it is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities. The Committee will closely monitor incoming information on economic and financial developments and will provide additional accommodation as needed to promote a stronger economic recovery and sustained improvement in labor market conditions in a context of price stability.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; Elizabeth A. Duke; Dennis P. Lockhart; Sandra Pianalto; Jerome H. Powell; Sarah Bloom Raskin; Jeremy C. Stein; Daniel K. Tarullo; John C. Williams; and Janet L. Yellen. Voting against the action was Jeffrey M. Lacker, who preferred to omit the description of the time period over which economic conditions are likely to warrant an exceptionally low level of the federal funds rate.

 SOURCE–KEEP READING

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HOWARD LINDZON’S RESPONSE TO THE TWITTER “CASHTAG” NEWS

 

The Twitter Hijacking of Stocktwits $ …The Cashtag

It’s interesting that Twitter has hijacked our creation of $TICKER ie. $AAPL. It only took four years to ‘fill‘ this hole, though a few months back they told me in a detailed email it was not a hole they wanted to fill.

You can hijack a plane but it does mean you know how to fly it.

Twitter is about advertising dollars. They have $1 billion of venture money on the line. Lot’s of pressures I am not interested in.

Go check out $HIT or $WAG (walgreen’s) on Twitter search or thousands of other features around curation that we have thought about for 4 years and implemented.

I wonder how well that will do for $FXCM (buying ads on twitter) converting hits from rappers into FOREX accounts.

CNN Money, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, Globe and Mail, Reuters, Bing, MSN trust Stocktwits with many more partners in the works. If you send a message from Stocktwits it is seen on these sites and their ticker pages.

I am disappointed of course that Twitter is hijacking our idea and time (will only confuse the masses), but Stocktwits moved beyond that basic functionality 4 years ago. In a dirty way, it’s the ultimate compliment so we will take it as such for the moment and keep rolling out functionality that makes us the best real-time communication platform for people that love stocks and markets.

KEEP READING

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MORE: Twitter Rolls Out Clickable Stock Symbols, or “Cashtags”

via Drew Olanoff at thenextweb.com

Twitter is now rolling out the ability for you to click on stock symbols with a $ sign in front of them. Once you click them, you’ll be able to see all of the conversation about a particular company, much like you would a hashtag.

Now you can click on ticker symbols like $GE on twitter.com to see search results about stocks and companies

Loving our new roll out! Ticker symbols now LIVE! Check out the convos around $APPL $FB 

Now $ + stock symbols (like $GOOG $APPL) are clickable on twitter.com. Feels so nice to see it working on production!!

Sadly, the embeds haven’t been updated to reflect the feature yet.

For example, when you click on $AAPL in a tweet, you’ll be directed to all of the conversations and mentions of that company. A few Twitter employees shared their glee with the wrong symbol for Apple ($APPL). Right now, it looks like Twitter is only making actual stock symbols clickable, as a test of $thenextweb didn’t do the trick.

Twitter   Search AAPL 520x489 Twitter rolls out clickable stock symbols, or Cashtags, so you can keep up with your investments

 

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MORE WARNING SIGNS FROM THE AURORA SHOOTER

via TMZ.com

JAMES HOLMES
Sent Massacre Plans to
Professor BEFORE Shootings
BREAKING NEWS
0723_james_holmes_tmz_mugshot_wm
James Holmes spelled out details of his planned massacre in a notebook which he mailed to a University of Colorado psychiatrist … more than a week before he opened fire in the Aurora movie theater.

Police and FBI discovered the notebook while searching a mail room on the Aurora campus on Monday … but it had reportedly been sitting there unopened since July 12 — EIGHT days before the shootings that killed 12 people and injured 58.

The package was sent from Holmes, and according to a FOXNews.com source … “Inside the package was a notebook full of details about how he was going to kill people. There were drawings of what he was going to do in it — drawings and illustrations of the massacre.”

The source says the drawings including gun-wielding stick figures shooting other stick figures.

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Bloomberg Might Be Coming for New Yorkers’ Booze Next

via NYPOST.com

The next city health-care crackdown: alcohol abuse.

Having attacked smoking, trans fats and sugary drinks, the Bloomberg administration is ramping up its campaign against alcohol abuse, The Post has learned.

The city Health Department will be conducting a massive, 50-question telephone survey of New Yorkers to get a better handle on the level of alcohol abuse in the city.

“We routinely conduct surveys about important health issues to learn more about them, and underage and excessive drinking are serious health issues,” said Health Department spokesman Sam Miller.

Typically, the department asks a handful of questions about drinking and drugs as part of an annual survey that queries residents about many other medical issues.

But this poll will put a heavy emphasis on booze, along with some questions on drug use, indicating the city is delving deeper into the drinking problem.

“Issues to be explored include behavior patterns around unhealthy alcohol consumption and awareness of existing alcohol-related laws and standards,’’ the department told bidders hoping to conduct the poll.

The poll, which should be completed by the end of September, will “oversample” young adults to make comparisons between 18- to 20-year-olds and 21- to 29-year-olds, health officials said.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nanny_mike_next_target_real_boozy_6khvdPpGlJlwVgazASV5lJ#ixzz21eRpVhnW

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FLASH: Spain Announces a Three Month Short Selling Ban on Bank Stocks

Spain is the center of turmoil this morning as their 10 year treasury hits 7.5%. As a measure to control equity markets Spain has just announced that short selling on bank stocks is in effect for the next three months….developing

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Despite Horrific Shooting ‘DARK KNIGHT RISES’ Set to Rake in $160 MILLION

via TMZ.com

Dark Knight Rises” is on track to pull in north of $160 million for the 3-day opening, despite the tragedy surrounding the flick … this according to reports.

The major Hollywood studios aren’t reporting official box office numbers yet out of respect for those affected by the massacre in Aurora on Friday … but The Hollywood Reporter is estimating the film will take in a solid $160 million.

Prior to Friday’s theater shooting, the film was estimated to pull in around $170 million, according to THR.

Despite the lower number, it will still make Christopher Nolan‘s third “Batman” installment the highest grossing 2D release of all time … and will beat the opening of last year’s “Dark Knight“, which capped out at a $158.4 million in its first weekend.

The Avengers” still takes the crown for best opening ever … raking in $207.4 million.

Official numbers will be posted Monday AM.

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Statue of Disgraced Joe Paterno Taken Down on Penn State Campus

via espn.com

The Joe Paterno statue was removed Sunday morning from its pedestal outside Beaver Stadium, and it will be stored in an unnamed “secure location,” Penn State president Rodney Erickson announced. Erickson also said the Paterno name will remain on the university’s library.

Shortly before dawn in State College, Pa., a work crew installed chain-link fences to barricade access to Porter Road outside Beaver Stadium and covered the fence with a blue tarp.

The work crew then removed the 7-foot, 900-pound bronze statue by forklift and placed it into the lower level of the stadium. Erickson released his highly sensitive decision to the public at 7 a.m. ET Sunday.

Workers lifted the 7-foot-tall statue off its base and used a forklift to move it into Beaver Stadium as the 100 to 150 students watched, some chanting, “We are Penn State.”

The decision came 10 days after a scathing report by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh found that Paterno, with three other top Penn State administrators, had concealed allegations of child sexual abuse made against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. The Freeh report concluded their motive was to shield the university and its football program from negative publicity.

Meanwhile, the NCAA said that that it would levy “corrective and punitive measures” against Penn State. The organization announced Sunday that it would spell out the sanctions on Monday but disclosed no details.

The Paterno family issued a statement only hours later saying the statue’s removal “does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky’s horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State community.”

READ THE REST HERE 

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WARNING SIGNS: Gun Club Owner Rejected Aurora Shooter

via sfgate.com

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Aurora shooting suspect James Holmes applied to join a Colorado gun range but never became a member after the owner became concerned over his “bizarre” message and behavior.

Owner Glenn Rotkovich says Holmes emailed an application to join the Lead Valley Range in Byers on June 25 and there were no overt warning signs in that form.

Holmes said he was not a user of illegal drugs or a convicted felon, so Rotkovich followed up by calling Holmes’ apartment to invite him to a mandatory orientation the following week.

Rotkovich got Holmes’ answering machine and says “it was bizarre — guttural, freakish at best.”

READ THE REST HERE

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REUTERS EXCLUSIVE: Banks in Libor Probe Consider Group Settlement

ZURICH/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group of banks being investigated in an interest rate rigging scandal are looking to pursue a group settlement with regulators rather than face a Barclays-style backlash by going it alone, people familiar with the banks’ thinking said.

Such discussions are preliminary, and it is unclear if regulators will enter these talks, aimed at resolving allegations that banks attempted to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a benchmark that underpins hundreds of trillions of dollars in contracts.

Still, there are powerful incentives for the banks to enter joint negotiations.

Barclays Plc was the first to settle with U.S. and British regulators, paying a $453 million penalty and admitting to its role in a deal announced June 27. Its chief executive, Bob Diamond, abruptly quit the next week, bowing to public pressure and erosion of the bank’s reputation.

The sources told Reuters that none of the banks involved now want to be second in line for fear that they will get similarly hostile treatment from politicians and the public. Bank discussions about a group settlement initially took place before the Barclays agreement, and picked back up in the aftermath.

It is unclear which banks are involved in the potential settlement talks. The banks being investigated include Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase. They all declined to comment.

A group agreement would appeal to financial watchdogs because they would be able to announce a headline-grabbing figure, showing that they were dealing firmly with the banking industry’s misdemeanors, a banker told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

 READ THE REST HERE AT MSNBC.COM

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