The most clichéd, yet satisfying, moment in any movie comes when the brutally bullying antagonist discovers he’s lost that which had empowered his abusive nature. Wait…I take that back. Seeing that fear in the bad guy’s eyes is the second most satisfying movie moment, the first being the inevitable administration of long-overdue justice that follows.
Though evidence has mounted for a while, today it became official: Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is now on its own, as the guardian angel/demon that once enabled the firm’s assault on our capital markets has clearly severed that relationship. At least that’s the conclusion I draw from the news that Goldman was censured and fined by NYSE and the SEC for specific faults in “execution and clearing” (another way of saying “naked short selling”).
What changed? After all, Goldman is still rich, right?
Well…sort of. Goldman may be flush with cash, but with pressure mounting on politicians to reject any of it in the form of campaign contributions, suddenly that cash doesn’t spend nearly as well as it used to. At the same time, it’s probably safe to assume Goldman’s allure as a future client has been severely degraded in the eyes of private sector career-minded regulators.
In other words, Goldman’s gold has lost its luster, and with it, the firm’s political ‘juice’. I can only imagine the look on their faces when Goldman brass first realized why their calls were not being returned: their power was gone. And folks with badges were knocking on the door.
Goldman’s role as a facilitator of illegal, short-side market manipulation will never come to symbolize its villainy in the mind of the public the way knowingly selling its clients garbage CDOs on behalf of John Paulson will. But that’s what makes this latest development even more significant: it suggests a sort of “piling on” mentality that was inconceivable just one month ago (keep in mind this is the company that, evidence suggests, successfully lobbied to have even legitimate short selling banned once the practice began to impact its share price). This, in turn, may be an inadvertent signal from regulatory “insiders” that Goldman’s prospects of emerging intact from this storm are slim.
Do not mistake the tone of this post for contentment, for this particular action doesn’t come close to addressing what I suspect is the true breadth and depth of Goldman’s role in short-side market manipulations. Indeed, the bulk of this particular complaint focuses on a few infractions observed over a few weeks in late 2008. Goldman, for its part, attributes the problem to an inconsequential bookkeeping error. If that’s true, a half-million dollar fine for an accounting mistake makes Goldman’s plight seem even more dire.
In the end, what’s most significant about this complaint is the insight it provides into how the system works when inappropriate influence ceases to be a factor in the regulatory process (something we’ve grown accustomed to not seeing): investigators investigate, infractions are cited, penalties applied, juice ignored.
I’m not convinced it’s within human nature to develop a financial markets regulatory paradigm able to consistently achieve this ideal (though I’m certain we can do better than what we’ve got). The alternative is to focus on the other side of the equation by limiting the capacity of any market participant to become so influential the rules cease to apply.
GS + RICO = TREASON.
Stock market today = Banksters revenge?
Be careful what you wish for?
Never let up, Mr. Bagley. Progress is being made. There will be pain, but in the end, there will be gain.
I’m admittedly excited to see that Goldman is under the microscope here, but I have to say this, a $450,000 fine is less than a fraction of a percent of a drop in the bucket for Goldman ($450,000 is substantially less than Goldman was fined before for their “accounting errors”), and the fact that they are being allowed to settle this with a small fine and without admitting any fault doesn’t really seem like much of a victory for the common investor here. It just seems like someone is trying to calm the American public down here by offering up small (and ultimately, to Goldman, inconsequential) victories, I just hope the rest of the American public sees through this and keeps applying more pressure. I’d hate to see anything short of real reform slow the momentum down here, especially considering the large amount of work that has been done in order to help build the momentum up to begin with.
Sarge, the amount is trivial, and a positive in the eyes of the ferenghi’s at GS.
Very sad day for US investors.
Jim , I may have to disagree with you on this last post of yours. Although the amount was trivial and I do mean trivial the charges may not be. There is more to come on this one trust me on this. Lets just wait it out for a bit. This is being set up to a grand finale. And there will be no way out for these Masters of the Universe!!!
I hope you are right, my friend.
When you say ” there will be no way out” you have made a small over-statement. Although the “shadow master overlords”, are as fragmented as any other cabal, they will come together to fight their common enemy, justice and good accounting principals. They are the princes of the new world order.
Ultimately, Blankfein will step down… there will be some congressional grandstanding (kick ‘em while they’re down, and populist piling on, etc)… There will be inconsequential fines, and no admission wrongdoing. Business as usual will continue. This is all a big dog & pony show orchestrated to quell the rising tide of anti-Goldman fervor that has been rising amongst a more informed & sophisticated subset of the general population, those who read and understand. I think today’s 1000 point drop in the market could easily have been a shot fired [by goldman] across the bow; in essence saying ‘don’t F&%K with us!’… but who knows. Goldman and the Federal Govt are just too intertwined, you cannot dismantle Goldman without having hundreds of political skeletons fall out of Goldman’s closets… DC would look like a boneyard. This will be interesting to see how the story unfolds, I fear that I am right.
“The alternative is to focus on the other side of the equation by limiting the capacity of any market participant to become so influential the rules cease to apply.”
Which is, of course, the premise of “Deepcapture”.
It will be interesting to see, as this ends, just how influential DC was in ending it. I happen to believe it wouldn’t have ended this way w/o DC. I think we are so corrupt as a nation, we’d have had to dissolve before Blankfein and his cronies loosened their grip on their own. I can’t think of a more despicable bunch.
At least Al Queda declares themselves the enemy.
There’s a rumor that the “no bid” and “strategic sell off” situation today that caused the market to crash was from the Wallstreet owners of the Federal Reserve warning Obama to not dare audit the private company that prints our money. (Look in your wallet for the Federal Reserve Note phrase which means the privately owned Federal Reserve owes you a dollar.)
Think about it. Who else could make major stocks trade at a penny. Federal Express is a private company and the Federal Reserve is a private company.
The government issues bonds and taxes the people to pay the interest, then the Federal Reserve buys them by printing brand new money out of thin air, backed by those bonds. They are required to return most of the profit back to the taxpayer, but they refuse to let us audit them to make sure they aren’t cheating.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/cnbc-tv18-analyst-markets/us-mkts-crashtechnical-glitches-dow-slips-350-pts_456274.html
America is a kingdom ruled by the bankster monarchs as made obvious when both Bush and Obama were ordered to bail them out.
Goldman people control the treasury. Until these people are arrested and executed for treason, I’m not going to be happy with a $450,000 fine as restitution for trillions in theft.
These wrinkled old parasites are part of yesterday’s paradigm. The world is awakening to a global democracy of ideas and these thieves who want to be NWO dictators based on their control of money and stock clearing are not to be part of it.
It’s too early to celebrate Judd, we need to accelerate the pressure on these thieves.
Can you imagine if you sold your house and paid someone to store your possessions and you came back from vacation to find they were gone? Well. Wallstreet warehouses have been charging monthly fees to store gold their clients bought, which they in turn sold to avoid the hassle of actually storing it. If they didn’t run the country, they would have been arrested.
Can you imagine hiring Wallstreet to finance your city, state or country? You agree to pay an interest rate based on supply and demand? Wallstreet charges you a commission on the trade, then bets against you, counterfeiting your bond by naked shorting it, which drives up the interest rate your population has to pay?
These people are scum and as long as they own the media and politicians, you will never hear that anywhere than in blogs and comment threads like this one, but you are more powerful than them and it is the light of day that is the antiseptic.
Spread the info far and wide, my friends.
People dream of things like world peace and elimination of world poverty, but these goals would happen over night if the parasites who lusted over the status quo were removed of their thrones.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spit into the ocean in the faces of our democracy as another captured agency, the EPA, tried to explain why they gave the oil company a waiver to not have a plan for a disaster.
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!”
You’d be surprised how quick things change when we all decide that at the same time.
The Federal Reserve crashed the system to remind the politicians that they are in charge and it doesn’t matter what the media, politicians or people think because these wrinkled old parasites wouldn’t think twice about a great depression because they are treasonous psychopaths that need to be taken out.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/05/trader-error.html
“taken out” has a nice cachet.
You don’t mean to lunch?
“plausible deniability”
Statement from SEC and CFTC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2010-72
Washington, D.C., May 6, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission today released the following statement:
“The SEC and CFTC are working closely with the other financial regulators, as well as the exchanges, to review the unusual trading activity that took place briefly this afternoon. We are also working with the exchanges to take appropriate steps to protect investors pursuant to market rules.
“We will make public the findings of our review along with recommendations for appropriate action.”
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-72.htm
SEC Said to Probe Causes, Exploitation of Stock-Market Turmoil
May 07, 2010, 12:20 AM EDT
May 7 (Bloomberg) — U.S. regulators plan to examine whether securities professionals triggered yesterday’s stock- market plunge or exploited the turmoil to profit illegally, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said….
read the rest @ http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-07/sec-said-to-probe-causes-exploitation-of-stock-market-turmoil.html
$1 trillion in market value
The “turmoil” was the owners of the DTC, Federal Reserve and Cede & Co. reminding Obama that he reports to them and he MUST NOT allow an audit of the Fed.
The parasite wallstreet barnacles are about to be purged from our system and their loss will be a huge improvement in standard of living for the rest of us.
Mosquitos and other parasites never called the shots, but we’ve ignored them until now.
i’ve read several claims and these two are worth noting:
1. “A trader who intended to place a sell order for futures worth $16 million may have instead typed $16 billion, setting off a wave of computerized sell orders.”
2. “The Nasdaq said after the markets closed that it will cancel all trades of stocks that moved more than 60% from their price at or immediately prior to 1:40 p.m., when the slide started. The cancellation applies to trades executed between 1:40 p.m. and 2 p.m.”
here is my claim: the sec had dragged its feet far to long and should have made effective what becomes effective 5/10/10 much sooner which probably would have stopped the calamity!
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 17 CFR PART 242 Release No. 34-61595; File No. S7-08-09 RIN 3235-AK35 Amendments to Regulation SHO
AGENCY: Securities and Exchange Commission. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) is adopting amendments to Regulation SHO under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”). We are adopting a short sale-related circuit breaker that, if triggered, will impose a restriction on the prices at which securities may be sold short (“short sale price test” or “short sale price test restriction”). Specifically, the Rule requires that a trading center establish, maintain, and enforce written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent the execution or display of a short sale order of a covered security at a price that is less than or equal to the current national best bid if the price of that covered security decreases by 10% or more from the covered security’s closing price as determined by the listing market for the covered security as of the end of regular trading hours on the prior day. In addition, the Rule requires that the trading center establish, maintain, and enforce written policies and procedures reasonably designed to impose this short sale price test restriction for the remainder of the day and the following day when a national best bid for the covered security is calculated and disseminated on a current and continuing basis by a plan processor pursuant to an effective national market system plan. We believe it is appropriate at this time to adopt a short sale-related circuit breaker because, when triggered, it will prevent short selling, including potentially manipulative or abusive short selling,
from driving down further the price of a security that has already experienced a significant intra-day price decline, and will facilitate the ability of long sellers to sell first upon such a decline. This approach establishes a narrowly-tailored Rule that will target only those securities that are experiencing significant intra-day price declines. We believe that addressing short selling in connection with such declines in individual securities will help address erosion of investor confidence in our markets generally.
In addition, we are amending Regulation SHO to provide that a broker-dealer may mark certain qualifying sell orders “short exempt.” In particular, if the broker-dealer chooses to rely on its own determination that it is submitting the short sale order to the trading center at a price that is above the current national best bid at the time of submission or to rely on an exception specified in the Rule, it must mark the order as “short exempt.” This “short exempt” marking requirement will aid surveillance by self-regulatory organizations (“SROs”) and the Commission for compliance with the provisions of Rule 201 of Regulation SHO.
DATES: Effective Date: May 10, 2010
Compliance Date: November 10, 2010
read the rest @ http://sec.gov/rules/final/2010/34-61595.pdf
And you can’t sue city hall.
Hey guys – don’t miss this!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/business/economy/07trade.html?ref=business
Dendreon is mentioned on pages 2 and 3.
MEDX – Goldman Sachs Created Counterfeit Votes to Reach 90% in Tender Offer?
Goldman Sachs has officially been charged and fined for participating in Naked Shorting of 22 un-named securities. Of course, the fine is just pocket change for GS.
Here is the official Document Explaining Goldman Sachs’ Criminal Naked Short Counterfeiting Schemes from NYSE:
– http://www.nyse.com/pdfs/10-NYSE-11.PDF
Naked Counterfeit Shorting is not only used to manipulate downward the price of a stock to guarantee a Wall Streeters’ short position, but it can also be used to COUNTERFEIT VOTES during a tender offering.
For example, when the MEDX and BMY boards agreed to a merger last year, Goldman Sachs was hired by MEDX as it investment banker.
And agreed to pay Goldman Sachs a bonus payment of $21 MILLION Dollars if the tender offer captured 90% or more of MEDX shares.
SO WHAT HAPPENED???????
BMY declared that it obtained 90.7% of the MEDX outstanding shares (128,918,402 = Shares outstanding per MEDX).
But to reach this 90.7% number, some Wall Street Insider had to crank up the Wall Street Counterfeit Machine by create new Failure-To-Deliver shares (Counterfeit MEDX Shares) to reach the 90% level that NJ law requires for a short form merger (no stock holder meeting required).
The Official SEC FTD data for MEDX shows that 1,431,546 Shares of MEDX were counterfeited on the last trading day. This equals 1.11% of the outstanding MEDX shares.
If one subtracts 1.11% from 90.7%, one gets:
———->>> 90.7% – 1.11% = 89.59% <<<——
This shows that BMY failed to obtain 90% of the MEDX shares.
Or to state it in different words, BMY was only able to obtain 90.7% of MEDX shares with the FRAUDULENT COUNTERFEITING of 1,431,546 MEDX shares/yes-votes.
Since Goldman Sachs received a $21 Million Dollar bonus for helping guarantee BMY obtained 90% of the MEDX shares during the tender offering, they are the prime suspect.
NOTE: Failures-To-Deliver (FTDs) created through Ex Clearing and Desking are not regulated by the SEC (these is a dark markets – unregulated market). So all counterfeit votes created in these two unregulated markets are NOT part of the official SEC numbers.
For more FTD data see a previous post on this topic:
——– BMY Failed to Obtain 90% of MEDX Shares???? ——-
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_B/threadview?m=tm&bn=2403&tid=120102&mid=120103&tof=-1&rt=2&frt=2&off=1
FAILURE-TO-DELIVER DATA FROM SEC – Only Twice a Month?
The continual refusal of the SEC to release FAILURE-TO-DELIVER DATA on a daily basis helped facilitate this COUNTERFEIT VOTE CREATION CRIME committed against the MEDX Shareholders.
For the MEDX Shareholders, this meant that NO Shareholder Meeting had to be called before BMY bought all the MEDX shares to merge MEDX into BMY per N.J. law.
This meant that the MEDX Shareholders could NOT ASK the MEDX management team WHY THEY WERE SELLING THE COMPANY just before the expected positive PIII results of Ipi were to be released, since the company had more than enough money to continue funding the company in the mean time.
- NOR COULD MEDX SHAREHOLDERS ASK WHY MEDX management team gave themselves VERY LARGE STOCK OPTIONS at extremely low prices while carrying on talks with BMY about a merger, which leaves the impression that the MEDX management team BRIBED THEMSELVES with large low cost stock options with the full knowledge that these new stock options WOULD CREATE LARGE GOLDEN PARACHUTES worth many millions of dollars after the merger was announced.
- NOR COULD MEDX SHAREHOLDERS ASK the MEDX management team for more information about then recently reported prostate cancer cures obtained with hormone therapy and ipi in 3 men.
- NOR COULD MEDX SHAREHOLDERS ASK the MEDX management team for more information about data from the soon be be released lung cancer study using ipi.
- NOR COULD MEDX SHAREHOLDERS ASK the MEDX management team for more information about vaccine with/withou ipi, which had fallen into a black hole.
- NOR COULD MEDX SHAREHOLDERS ASK the MEDX management team WHY it was selling MEDX at such a LOW PRICE, since BMY had non-public insider information on ipi and was buying not just ipi, but the WHOLE DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM that created ipi and other approved drugs for other companies.
This Counterfeit Vote Crime committed against the MEDX shareholders allowed BMY to purchase MEDX at a SUBSTANTIAL DISCOUNT.
For those who do know about MEDX’s many drugs and about ipi specifically – ipi works! ipi works! ipi works!
BMY has announced that it expects to receive approval from the FDA for ipi.
The continual refusal of the SEC to release FAILURE-TO-DELIVER DATA on a daily basis helped its Wall Street Fraternity Brothers, Wall Street Insiders, steal MEDX from its shareholders.
And what did the SEC do about this COUNTERFEIT VOTE CRIME against the MEDX Stockholders…
………NOTHING – The Best Action SEC Lawyers can take while they acting as Defense Lawyers for their Wall Street Fraternity Brothers.
Interesting comment about the MEDX management voting themselves highly profitable stock options ahead of the merger. Something similar happened when mid-size “business intelligence” software maker SPSS was getting ready for it’s all-cash buyout by IBM. I doubt that shareholder approval was falsified with counterfeited shares & proxy votes… But the SPSS exec mngmt & directors voted themselves historically outsized deeply discounted stock options several months before the merger was announced. Someone trolling the Form 4 filings could have figured out something strange was going to happen from public information & traded SPSS accordingly (speculatively).
Ok my investigative friends.
Yesterdays sell off.
Take a peek at the historical price of P&G during early March 09 last year. It was in the low 40′s. So should it be a surprise that it dropped from 60 to the 40 area and while doing so someone was reconciling.
Think that was happening re many equities or indexes tied to similar time lines?
The strategy was to close em out lower. The mechanism was the so called erroneous trades.
And when it is all said and done. Let’s discuss Greece etc for the reason.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100507/ts_nm/us_nasdaq;_ylt=AhWhY2dOQxNEApNmJRNsUqqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNlZXEwaGFpBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTAwNTA3L3VzX25hc2RhcQRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzEwBHBvcwM3BHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDbmFzZGFxbmFtZXNz
Nasdaq OMX said it would cancel trades with price deviations of more than 60 percent between 2:40 p.m. and 3 p.m. from their 2:40 p.m. levels, and the New York Stock Exchange said it would similarly cancel trades on its all-electronic NYSE Arca platform that deviated over 60 percent from their last print at 2:40 p.m. between 2:40 and 3 p.m.
Nasdaq said its decision was made in conjunction with other exchanges and said it could not be appealed.
For a list of the affected stocks, please see: (http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/TraderNews.aspx?id=ETA2010-30)
Amongst the large companies that appear on the list are -
COMPANY NAME RIC
ACCENTURE INC ACN.N
EXELON CORP EXC.N
CENTURYTEL INC CTL.N
ONEOK PARTNERS OKS.N
CENTERPOINT CNP.N
BOARDWALK PIPELINE BWS.N
WINDSTREAM CORP WIN.O
INTERPUBLIC GROUP IPG.N
HANSEN NATURAL HANS.O
LINN ENERGY LINE.O
GENPACT LTD G.N
The market didn’t crash by a “glitch” and it wasn’t the European Union or Greek riots either… it was terrorism. It was a message: Don’t F*** With Us. Congress got the message and acted accordingly.
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/was-yesterdays-glitch-really-big-banking-blackmail/#comment-16447
http://tinyurl.com/2bh3t6c
The market didn’t crash by a “glitch” and it wasn’t the European Union or Greek riots either… it was terrorism. It was a message: Don’t Fug With Us. Congress got the message and acted accordingly.
Fraudonomics http://uruknet.info/index.php?p=m65575&hd=&size=1&l=e
Judd,
You stated above:
“Goldman’s role as a facilitator of illegal, short-side market manipulation will never come to symbolize its villainy in the mind of the public the way knowingly selling its clients garbage CDOs on behalf of John Paulson will.”
I agree with this statement, but I would add that Naked Counterfeit Selling should be described with the same words:
Naked Shorting (Naked Counterfeit Selling) is a Wall Street Insider practice of “knowingly selling its clients garbage” to strengthen their short positions in a DIRECT BET AGAINST the long investor.
Jim et al please listen to this show.
http://www.winningstrategies.net/business-talk-radio-show.php
Click on: Recording of the First Hour
2:20 – Wes Christian – a lot of trades occur on ecn’s with annonimity
3:25 – Dr. Shapiro – the problem is the rules and norms have changed; now ethic to make me rich is fair, legal and ethical; nns is being done by the biggest names on wall st.
6:00 – $450K slap to GS; GS used to be an investment bank, now a huge hedge fund – 90 % of their business
7:10 – Abacus – synthetic cds, not a singe mortgage was made; GS will be hit by lawsuits around the world – worst part is not the fees, but the defensive mode it will assume.
9:25 – GS fine of $450K corroborates this (nss) has been going on for a long time; rigging the system to be guaranteed a profit
10:25 – 15 different types of frauds; a publically regulated market with full disclosure and transparency; SEC must enact rules to bar the 15 frauds, 30 yrs of no enforcement; instead wanted to maintain the stability of the market
13:00 – in Japan nss firm got suspended from all trading for 10 days; as opposed to no consequences imposed by SEC
18:15 – SEC lack of enforcement of what’s on the books; Congress has to keep pressure on the SEC, i.e., invesgtors have to keep pressure on the Congress
20:00 – it took a 1929 depression to get a rethinking and then it took many years for Congress to pass reforms
20:45 – focus needs to change: regulating these hugumoneous hedge funds; their criminal stealing
21:30 – Goldman advised Greece to cook their books
22:45 – need to be sent to jail
23:00 – same as naked shorting – transparency is key
28:30 – enforcement & lack of transparency, the intl aspect, who’s behind them: all trades on publically traded markets
29:15 – talk to other countries about uniform regulation
30:15 – Greece impacts Americans: workers are getting clobbered, we have a financial system not about financing to create jobs, but creating, buying and selling paqper assets that are bets
31:15 – indididual investors and pension funds getting beat for quick profits
32:00 – wall st operates on a day to day basis that’s become the problem
32:30 – call or email your congressman, freezethebudget.com. tell them you want enforcement now
Dylan finally getting the truth out there. He is a recovering crook from CNBC himself and called Patrick “crazy” for saying our capital markets were a house of cards 3 years ago. My how times and his rhetoric have changed
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37019373#37026025
“IF ONLY THERE WERE A PATTERN”
This phrase has been the war cry of the well educated abusive short selling market reform advocates for many years.
THE CORRUPT STATUS QUO
Due to how the DTCC and its NSCC subdivision have been “rigged” the sellers of nonexistent securities can still gain access to the funds of those purchasing these nonexistent securities despite the fact that they obviously will never be delivered.
THE NEED TO MAINTAIN THE CORRUPT STATUS QUO NOT ONLY TO BE ABLE TO PERPETUATE THESE THEFTS BUT ALSO TO AVOID EVER BEING FORCED TO COVER THE HISTORICAL DELIVERY FAILURES IN CORPORATIONS THAT REFUSED TO GO BANKRUPT ON CUE
THE ULTRA OBVIOUS “PATTERN”
1) Theoretically in the name of “increased efficiencies” and the need for the “injection of liquidity” Wall Street has come up with a variety of technological advancements. These include ECNs, high frequency trading, “sponsored access”, “filtered access”, “naked access”, etc.
2) The 3 common denominators of all of these technological innovations were that they didn’t quite fit into our existing regulatory structure, our regulators and SROs had not designed proper safeguards to detect and address abuses resulting in leverage of the innovators taking short positions over Main Street’s “long investors” and they provided obfuscation.
3) This gave rise to a “lag” period during which abusive short sellers could easily route the funds of “long” investors into their own wallets while selling nonexistent securities. They even had plenty of time to develop “cover-up frauds” to hide the existence of the primary fraud involving the sale of nonexistent securities.
4) Since they didn’t quite fit into our existing regulatory structure something had to give. These technological advancements would have to be delayed until they could conform with the current regulatory structure or the regulatory structure had to be weakened to accommodate these “innovations”. Due to the superior lobbying power of these “innovators” the latter won out and the foundational protections against abusive short selling crimes like the 74-year old “uptick rule” had to be done away with as “high frequency traders” did not have time to comply.
5) In the resultant regulatory void the “need for speed” and the theoretical “liquidity” it provided trumped the need to provide investor protection to the non-speedy Main Street “long” investors. The result was the need to rely on the “high frequency traders” with their “proprietary algorithms” that now account for two thirds of the daily trading volume TO ACT IN GOOD FAITH in their new role because the regulators and SROs have absolutely no clue what is going on behind the scenes when trades are allowed to occur at impossible to monitor supersonic levels.
6) In regards to the obfuscation provided by all of these “technological advancements” it turns out that when you commit a crime as obvious as refusing to deliver that which you sold high levels of obfuscation are obviously a prerequisite. Secretive “proprietary algorithms” used at dizzying speeds filled the bill quite nicely.
7) Due to the share price depressing effect of the “security entitlements” resulting from delivery failures the normal share price buoying effect of buy orders actually gets converted to a share price depressant effect. There can be no more obvious case of the “rigging” of markets in favor of Wall Street’s abusive short sellers over Main Street’s “long” investors than the NSCC’s facilitation of policies allowing both buy and sell orders to drive prices downwards.
THE ULTRA OBVIOUS CURE
All delivery failures older than perhaps T+6 need to be immediately bought-in so that the Main Street “long” investors can finally get delivery of that which they purchased and so that these trades can finally “settle”.
THE ULTRA OBVIOUS REALITY
Until this event occurs Main Street “long” investors will continue to be relegated to be buying a “pig in a poke” every time they make an investment because the SEC, FINRA and the NSCC quite aware of the levels of these delivery failures ABSOLUTLY REFUSE to release this “MATERIAL” information to Main Street investors. As a result of these “cover-ups” of earlier fraudulent behavior Main Street investors will continue to invest in U.S. corporations that may have already been pre-ordained to die an early death. Unfortunately for the future of our markets and our corporations and the jobs they provide the once and for all “coming clean” of the SEC, FINRA and the NSCC will also reveal to U.S. investors that their historical investments in many development stage U.S. corporations never did have a chance to succeed because of the these regulators and SROs willfully choosing to look after the financial interests of powerful Wall Street “technology innovators” instead of following their congressional mandate to provide investor protection.
I need to get you folks at DeepCapture.com to appreciate how incredibly predictable Thursday’s attack on the entire system was and how the next one is right around the corner unless one easy step is executed. When Bear Stearns was targeted for destruction their failures to deliver went up 145-fold (14,400%) as their share price fell off of a cliff. There was no response from the SEC, FINRA or the NSCC with the congressional mandate to provide investor protection. Six months later when Lehman Brothers was caught in the crosshairs their failures to deliver went up 151-fold (15,000%) and again absolutely no response.
Thursday’s activities were inevitable as there is still no truly meaningful deterrence to this behavior no matter how palpable the public outrage becomes. Goldman Sachs gets caught for abusive short selling over 100-times and they’re fined $450,000. The only source of truly meaningful deterrence in the abusive short selling sector is the fear of a buy-in. That’s it. People need to realize that the DTCC and its DTC and NSCC subdivisions have cleverly gained a monopoly on 15 of the 16 sources of empowerment to execute buy-ins. After gaining this monopoly their management has the audacity to pretend to be “powerless” to execute these all-important buy-ins. The 16th source of empowerment to execute buy-ins belongs to the clearing firms whose client didn’t get delivery of that which it bought. The NSCC has a policy that allows this clearing firm to earn interest off of the monetary value of the failed delivery obligation but only IF IT AGREES TO REFUSE TO EXECUTE A BUY-IN OF THE FAILED DELIVERY OBLIGATION. An NSCC participating clearing firm just doesn’t execute a buy-in of a fellow participant fraternity brother.
In 2003 the research of Evans, Geczy, Musto and Reed revealed that even “MANDATED” buy-ins on Wall Street only occur in one-eighth of 1% of the time. If there is no fear of being bought-in then there is no deterrence to these crimes. This really shouldn’t be that mysterious as the NSCC management refusing to execute the buy-ins are the employees of those abusive NSCC participants selling the nonexistent securities. See if you can answer these 2 simple questions: Question 1- How can the parties congressionally mandated to provide investor protection (The SEC, FINRA and the NSCC) be of the opinion that forcing those that absolutely refuse to ever deliver the securities that they sell to finally deliver them (via a buy-in) is somehow too onerous when the fear of being bought-in is the only deterrent to these crimes? Question #2: How can this currently corrupt status quo ever be stopped unless there is one cathartic event in which all delivery failures older than perhaps T+6 are immediately bought-in?
The “physics” involved here are really pretty straight forward. The regulators and SROs of yesterday not only allowed but also facilitated the accumulation of gigantic naked short positions in U.S. corporations targeted by a certain minority on Wall Street for destruction. Because of this historical facilitation these agencies and commissions are currently in “cover-up” mode lest they be held liable for their activities and the already anemic levels of investor confidence drops even more. Newsflash: After last Thursday IT CAN’T GET ANY LOWER! The simple reality is that the congressionally mandated providers of investor protection cannot be in BOTH cover-up mode and robust investor protection mode at the same time.
UNTIL these buy-ins are finally executed and the buyers of nonexistent shares can finally get delivery of that which they purchased so that these trades can finally “settle” these SROs and regulators with 100% certainly will remain in cover-up mode. It’s really that black or white. Until then the 99% of us not committing these crimes are SCREWED! Isn’t this all kind of silly to be occurring in the most advanced democracy on the planet?
Why don’t you guys send Wall Street a message and close your trading accounts. Tell Patrick to take his company private. Sell your retirement accounts and take the tax hit. Stand up and be soldiers instead of waiting for Wall Street to see the light.
When they don’t have an endless supply of money coming because YOU don’t want to play anymore then things might change.
So tell your family and friends to get out of the markets.
get out
If Patrick takes his company private, the people shorting him make a windfall profit, because they get to cover at the private price, presumably close to current levels.
That’s what the shorts hope for. If the company turns out to be good, they hope that management takes the company private and they have a set low price to cover at.
Buyins? NO one is going to enfroce buyins as long as there are vulnerabilies in places that could come tumbling down an impact politics around the world. And that is the problem we face. Cut the cable, cut the cable. But if we do we all die. UGH. What you saw Thursday was not by accident. The historical data clearly shows the WHY. The TACTIC was how it was implemented.
Many a stock and indices had increased dramatically and exposing.
Thus the yank em down to close em lower. From a simple perspective they did so as the spx is much lower and on that particular day took it down to levels to let some out. The fact they used an exreme tactic simply shows how vulnerable some most have been. Let’s not forget this same move was done as we approached Jan 2008 and by the time options closed the SPX which had hit the 1565 ranged closed near 1100. Or with some help from others they took it down signicantly and as they did they CRUSHED all holding higher strikes at higher stock prices.
Truth is the delcine was done in an orderlly fashion over months. UNTIL. someone else with a different agenda used a more aggressive tactis as they took down Bear in days and as Dr Decosta notes they then went after others inclusive of LEH.
Here and now it took a drastic one day occurrence. This is not the first time that has been done. And it will not be the last. So watch for extremes in any direction and then you will see the risk in either direction. That applies to not just an index but a stock within such.
I’m all for enforcemnt. I’m all for throw the bums in jail.
And yes I can see what is being done and how to fix it. The problem dear Watsons is that it’s just not that simple to fix. And there in lies the problem.
Does this sound familiar anyone? It should it just happened with Goldman this past week!!
Re: Chicago Firm ( Terra Nova Financial) Linked to P&G Trade.
Terra Nova is apparently already under scrutiny for allegedly lax trading policies and procedures. The company, which is listed on the over-the-counter Bulletin Board under the symbol “TNFG.OB,” disclosed in its Form 10-K for fiscal 2009 filed on March 30 that it received a Wells Notice on March 9 from FINRA, alerting the company of a recommendation for disciplinary action against it related to short sales occurring in the October-December 2007 timeframe.
FINRA is alleging that Terra Nova “accepted short sale orders without proper arrangements to borrow the securities” during that period, a practice known as “naked” shorting.
Also in the Form 10-K, Terra Nova disclosed its receipt of a Wells Notice in December 2009 from NYSE Regulation, saying the NYSE is investigating its conduct in four separate matters. The most recent of these is an allegation from September 2008 that a “large volume of erroneous trades” were placed by a Terra Nova client named Hsu-Tung Lee through an automated trading program.
“NYSE alleges that these trades far exceeded Lee’s buying power, disrupted the market and indicate that Terra Nova failed to establish or maintain appropriate policies or procedures to prevent such erroneous orders from reaching the market,” the filing states.
The other allegations, one of which dates back to January 2005, stem from similar alleged deficiencies in the firm’s control policies and procedures related to short sale orders, restrictions on “wash sales and prearranged trades,” and possible “spoofing” of the market by a customer who allegedly entered and then cancelled orders prior to the market’s open for a two-month period in 2008.”
The SEC has been aware of these criminals operating outside the law for years….when will these crooks be shuttered and the principals arrested?
JPMorgans fatal flaw,silver?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/feds_probing_jpmorgan_trades_in_gZzMvWBqOJpB55M7Rh9vwM
united states bankruptcy court
southern district of new york
in re subpoena for rule 2004 examination
case no 08-13555 (jmp) chapter 11
lehman bros holdings inc et al. debtor
to: goldman sachs group inc
you are commanded to produce and permit inspection and copying of the following documents or objects at the place, date and time specified below (list documents or objects):
see attached schedule a
@ cribd.com/full/30651736?access_key=key-njqughqh2fhwcon93k4
dated april 27, 2010
16 pages
corrected link for lehman subpoena to goldman sachs group
http://www.scribd.com/full/30651736?access_key=key-njqughqh2fhwcon93k4
I see that David Rosenberg made a case for $3,000 gold in part because of the ECB’s latest money printing announcement:
http://www.goldalert.com/stories/3000-Gold-Price-Amid-Euro-Contagion
http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m5d10-Economist-Tim-Madden-The-PIIGS-Brief-understanding-how-oligarchs-rig-loot-our-economies
http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m3d30-Economist-Tim-Madden-USCanadian-consumer-interest-calculation-method-a-monstrous-fraud-1-of-2
Judd, my message about the “black swan” did not go through.
Is this working OK Today?
By SCOTT PATTERSON And TOM LAURICELLA
Shortly after 2:15 p.m. Eastern time last Thursday, hedge fund Universa Investments LP placed a big bet in the Chicago options trading pits that stocks would continue their sharp declines.
On any other day, this $7.5 million trade for 50,000 options contracts might have briefly hurt stock prices, though not caused much of a ripple. But coming on a day when all varieties of financial markets were deeply unsettled, the trade may have played a key role in the stock-market collapse just 20 minutes later.
WSJ Professional
Fixing the Flash Crash
.The trade by Universa, a hedge fund advised by Nassim Taleb, author of “Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,” led traders on the other side of the transaction—including Barclays Capital, the brokerage arm of British bank Barclays PLC—to do their own selling to offset some of the risk, according to traders in Chicago.
Then, as the market fell, those declines are likely to have forced even more “hedging” sales, creating a tsunami of pressure that spread to nearly all parts of the market.
The tidal wave of selling fed into a market already on edge about the economy in Europe. As the selling spread, a blast of orders appears to have jarred the flow of data going into brokerage firms, such as Barclays Capital, according to people familiar with the matter.
Exchanges, in turn, were clogged by huge volumes of offers to buy and sell stocks, say traders and exchange executives. Even before some individual stocks collapsed to just a penny a share, data from the NYSE Euronext’s electronic Arca exchange started to appear questionable, say traders.
Nassim Taleb
.In the disarray, some huge superfast-trading hedge funds that now provide much of the liquidity for the stock market pulled to the sidelines. The working theory among traders and others involved in the exchange meltdown is that the “Black Swan”-linked fund may have contributed to a “Black Swan” moment, a rare, unforeseen event that can have devastating consequences.
“Universa alone couldn’t have caused the meltdown,” said Mark Spitznagel, Universa’s founder. “We had reached a critical point in the market, and it was poised to collapse.” Barclays Capital declined to comment.
As more details of last Thursday’s collapse become clear, there is less evidence to suggest a “fat-finger” data-entry error caused the collapse. Instead, the picture is one of a highly rare confluence of events, some linked, some unrelated, that exposed weaknesses in the stock market large and small. Within five minutes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 700 points as trading seized up in individual stocks such as Procter & Gamble and even exchange-traded mutual funds.
“It did point out that there is a structural flaw,” said Gus Sauter, chief investment officer at Vanguard Group. “We have to think through how you preserve the immediacy and yet preserve the liquidity.”
The episode highlights a bigger question about the stock market. In recent years, the market has grown exponentially faster and more diverse. Stock trading’s main venue is no longer the New York Stock Exchange but rather computer servers run by companies as far afield as Austin, Texas; Kansas City, Mo.; and Red Bank, N.J.
This diversity has made stock-trading cheaper, a plus for both institutional and individual investors. It has also made it more unruly and difficult to ensure an orderly market. Today that responsibility falls largely on a group of high-frequency traders who make up an estimated two-thirds of stock-market volume. These for-profit hedge funds look out for their own investors’ interests and not those of investors in the stocks they trade.
Photos from left: Abacausa; Associated Press; Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
.Hours before the panic began, there were signs that Thursday was not shaping up to be a humdrum day. By 11 a.m., when the Dow was down only about 60 points, selling volume was unusually heavy. One measure of selling—the percentage of stocks falling without first moving upward—was at its highest since the day the market reopened after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to Barclays.
By 2 p.m., financial markets of just about every sort were under significant strain. In Europe, the spillover from the Greek debt crisis led to a huge drop in the euro against the dollar and the Japanese yen, as well as a broad bond-market decline. European banks were charging each other higher interest rates to borrow money.
Some 2,800 miles away from Wall Street, in Santa Monica, Calif., Universa placed its trade.
The trade wasn’t out of character for Universa, which has about $6 billion under management. Mr. Taleb, who is an adviser to the firm and an investor, gained fame for “The Black Swan,” a book that suggested unlikely events in the financial markets are far more likely than most investors believe.
Universa frequently purchases options contracts that will pay off if the market makes a sharp move lower. It posted big gains in the market selloff of late 2008 and launched a fund last year designed to benefit if inflation surges.
Through the trading desks at Barclays, Universa bought 50,000 options contracts, according to people familiar with the matter. The contracts would pay off about $4 billion should Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fall to 800 in June. It was at 1145 points at the time of the trade.
Back across the country in Chicago, the big trade appeared to have had an immediate ripple in the markets. The traders on the other side of the Universa trade were essentially betting stocks wouldn’t post big losses.
But to minimize the risk of losing money, they in turn needed to sell, according to traders.
The more the market fell, the more the traders at places like Barclays had to sell to protect their own positions. This, along with likely dozens of other trades across the market, led to a cascade of selling in the futures markets.
As the stock-trading volume soared, data systems across the stock market began to get clogged. At Barclays Capital, a market data feed that delivers to the firm data on “buy” and “sell” orders went down, although a backup system immediately went online without any impact to the firm.
As the turmoil unfolded, every second saw some 300,000 pieces of stock information—stock prices moves, trades—pour into Barclays’s system. A normal peak is some 60,000 ticks a second, says Barclays Capital’s head of electronic-trading sales, Brian Fagen, who was monitoring the chaos in the market on his screens.
Large hedge funds were juggling huge positions as volume spiked. Two Sigma Investments LLC, a New York hedge-fund manager that engages in complex trading strategies, saw its highest-volume day since launching in 2001, according to a person familiar with the matter.
By 2:37 p.m., the overload seemed to have taken its toll on the NYSE’s Arca electronic-trading system. At that point, its rival, the Nasdaq, owned by NASDAQ OMX Group Inc., detected what it felt was questionable information in the data. It sent out a message saying it would no longer route quotes to Arca.
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.This step—known as declaring “self-help”—doesn’t happen often among the major exchanges. But in the coming minutes, the BATS exchange also stopped automatically routing orders to Arca.
For a crucial set of players—high-frequency-trading hedge funds—all this turmoil was becoming too risky to handle. One fear that would prove all too real was that in the extreme swings, some—but not all—trades would later be canceled, leaving them on the hook for unwanted positions.
Manoj Narang, whose Tradeworx Inc. firm runs a high-frequency trading operation in Red Bank, N.J., began to worry the extreme volatility could lead to painful losses in his fund.
At about 2:40, he and a small team of traders scrambled to close the positions held by the high-speed fund, which trades rapidly between stock indexes and the individual stocks in the index.
Normally, it takes about a fraction of a second to unwind the trades because of the high-powered computers Mr. Narang uses. But as the market plunged, it took about two minutes—an eternity in today’s computer-driven market. Tradebot Systems Inc, a large high-frequency firm based in Kansas City, Mo., was also seeing chaotic action in many of the securities it traded and decided to pull back from the market.
With the high-frequency funds either selling or pulling out of the market, Wall Street brokerage firms pulling back and the NYSE stock exchange temporarily halting trading on some stocks, offers to buy stocks vanished from underneath the market. Normally there can be hundreds of offers to buy the iShares Russell 1000 Growth Index exchange-traded fund, but at 2:46 p.m., there were just four bids north of $14 for a fund that had been trading at $51 minutes earlier, according to data reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Around 3 p.m., the selling pressure abated. Just as swiftly as the market fell, it recovered ground. One factor behind the swift recovery, traders say, were funds that use computers and formulas to sniff out bargains in the market. These funds swooped in on hundreds of cheap stocks, helping push the market higher.
—Jacob Bunge contributed to this article.
In the “Black Swan” article above you see the insanity of allowing “derivatives” to alter the value of the underlying financial asset from which it was “derived” in a tail wagging the dog fashion. This is the hallmark of abusive short selling. The “security entitlement” that is induced to be issued whenever a delivery failure occurs is a “derivative” of the underlying equity share from which it was “derived”. Since UCC Article-8 mandates that it be treated as being readily sellable then it adds to the “supply” of that which interacts with the “demand” variable to determine share prices through the “price discovery” process. The concept of allowing the “derivative” to negatively affect the value of that from which it is “derived” is insane.
Opportunistic securities fraudsters are obviously going to sell nonexistent securities and refuse to deliver that which they sold. This way they can BOTH establish naked short positions and also induce the issuance of these “derivatives” known as “security entitlements” to give value to the naked short position all in one fell swoop. It’s free money being given out i.e. the money of the investor that bought the nonexistent shares and will never get delivery “in good form” of that which he purchased. It sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy; just keep selling fake shares until the corporation targeted for destruction goes under. The key is to have your alter ego, the NSCC subdivision of the DTCC, theoretically “cure” the delivery failures by setting up an illegal self-replenishing stock borrow program (SBP), hide the delivery failures from the investing public and then refuse to buy-in the delivery failures no matter how old they become.
Black-Swan – Largest Bear Raid in History Occurred Last Thursday?
The Wall Street Journal has an article today about the cause of last Thursday’s market crash:
Hedge Funds
Creating the Improbable: Did Bet Trigger Crash?
May 11, 2010, 4:40 am
A “black-swan” — one of those events that is rare, important and hard to predict — occurred last Thursday afternoon in the sudden and dramatic stock-market tumble.
Just before the fall of the market, which was already slipping, accelerated, the hedge fund Universa Investments placed a $7.5 million bet in the Chicago options trading pits that stocks would keep on going down.
Universa counts among its advisers Nassim Taleb, the man who popularized the idea of such things happenings with his book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
… CONTINUED….
( http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704879704575236771699461084.html?mod=WSJ_World_LeadStory )
_______________________
QUESTIONS………………………
- Was last Thursday a purposeful manipulation of the stock markets by Wall Street Insiders to create the largest BEAR RAID in the History of the modern world?
- With the SEC eliminating the Up-Tick rule some years ago and the advent of High Speed Trading by Wall Street Insiders…
Does Wall Street Insiders NOW HAVE THE ABILITY TO CREATE A BEAR RAID on the Whole Stock Market instead of just single companies?
- Was the purposeful destruction of Bears Sterns and Lehmnan Brothers by Wall Street Insiders the first example of Wall Street Insiders’ creating a Bear Raid upon the whole stock market
QUESTIONS………………………
- Was last Thursday a purposeful manipulation of the stock markets by Wall Street Insiders to create the largest BEAR RAID in the History of the modern world?
- With the SEC eliminating the Up-Tick rule some years ago and the advent of High Speed Trading by Wall Street Insiders…
Does Wall Street Insiders NOW HAVE THE ABILITY TO CREATE A BEAR RAID on the Whole Stock Market instead of just single companies?
- Was the purposeful destruction of Bears Sterns and Lehmnan Brothers by Wall Street Insiders the first example of Wall Street Insiders’ creating a Bear Raid upon the whole stock market?
Bears Sterns and Lehmnan Brothers where proof-of-concept.
We’re now seeing the prototypical forerunners for movement destined to destroy the market and enrichen the few for all time.
It was reported by various sources that GS prop trading had a perfect score last quarter. They made money every day risking their own capital. This is somewhat similar to winning the lottery 10 times in a row from a statistical point of view. People invested in Madoff because they thought he was front running they thought that was the source of his alpha. I do not believe that GS is running a ponzi so I will leave it to your smart readers to surmise what the source of GS alpha is. Who was it that lead the change of the exchanges to a private club to a for profit entity then lead the destruction of the specialist system which was a lisence to steal but a highly regulated lisence , then lead the charge to the other alternative trading venues where we have mkt making run by black boxes which are entirely unregulated.
btw, I believe GS issued a buy rating on Gold with a target of 1335
Just watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7P1-bpvFUQ
`Perfect Quarter’ at Four U.S. Banks Shows Fed-Fueled Revival
By David Mildenberg and Dawn Kopecki – May 11, 2010
Four of the largest U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc., racked up perfect quarters in their trading businesses between January and March, underscoring how government support and less competition is fueling Wall Street’s revival.
Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the first, second and fifth-biggest U.S. banks by assets, all said in regulatory filings that they had zero days of trading losses in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc., the third-largest, doesn’t break out its daily trading revenue by quarter. It recorded a profit on each trading day, two people with knowledge of the results said.
“The trading profits of the Street is just another way of measuring the subsidy the Fed is giving to the banks,” said Christopher Whalen, managing director of Torrance, California- based Institutional Risk Analytics. “It’s a transfer from savers to banks.”
The trading results, which helped the banks report higher quarterly profit than analysts estimated even as unemployment stagnated at a 27-year high, came with a big assist from the Federal Reserve. The U.S. central bank helped lenders by holding short-term borrowing costs near zero, giving them a chance to profit by carrying even 10-year government notes that yielded an average of 3.70 percent last quarter.
……. CONTINUED….
( http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-11/jpmorgan-traders-match-goldman-sachs-s-first-quarter-with-no-trading-loss.html )
They’ll just form some kind of a PAC (political action committee) that has some innocuous sounding name – like Grandmothers for Fluffy Kittens and have the PAC make the donations.
Filthy lucre still has cachet:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aslGpmQalnyU
HOW can the big banks in the US have perfect trading records for 3 straight months?
Max Keiser explains how:
Max Keiser Reveals 1000 Point Plunge was Digital Financial Terrorism on Alex Jones Tv :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7P1-bpvFUQ
Thank you hangthemall ..
MOVEON CALLS FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OF SACHS:
http://pol.moveon.org/investigatewallst/
Please sign the petition.
“My father brings tremendous wisdom and experience, which will help Overstock continue to grow and mature as a company,” said Patrick Byrne.
Perfectly baked cake, the icing flavor
Varies depending on the weather.
flaws and imperfections make us
A sweet taste of life. As we deal
With dishonesty and challenge.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1318709620100513
Goldman Sachs thinks it couldn’t warn prospective buyers of
ABACUS that the security was crap because a Market Maker doesn’t
have a fiduciary duty to both sides of a trade. Is it a
market maker?
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/44588
Even if they were ‘making a market’ (whatever the heck that means, aside from creating an elaborate ponzi castle) it doesn’t shield them from fraud.
Blodgett can attest to that, for what he’s worth.
Where can I get a hat like the lady who collects 32 dividend checks a month?
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1318709620100513
You folks were discussing how Goldman Sachs and others could possibly go three months without one trading day resulting in net losses. Are they really that smart or are they somehow playing on a different playing field than the rest of us? The answer is contained in the Deutsche Bank article cited above.
First of all GS is for all intents and purposes a hedge fund with access to the discount window. Hedge funds route an average of $11 billion per year to the DTCC participating “securities intermediaries” (MMs, clearing firms, prime brokers, etc.) willing to break the greatest amount of securities laws in order to further the financial interests of those hedge funds. In essence, it’s “survival of the corruptest” amongst these “securities intermediaries”. The currency in use in these “bribes” is not easy to trace cash it’s “order flow” which becomes cash. You don’t even need the services of a “fence” as hedge funds can use any “securities intermediaries” they choose to.
In the article cited above note how Deutsche Bank had anti-abusive short selling policies available that they simply “disabled” for “certain parties”. As the article states:
“But the regulator said Deutsche Bank sometimes disabled its system, while NFS created a separate system for some customers, so that these short sale orders were allowed to go through”.
Being willing to “disable your anti-NSS system” is going to earn you a bigger chunk of that $11 billion. If FINRA were to do an inspection tomorrow DB would be able to point out their “system” and how they are theoretically in compliance. In this article you see where the clearing firm of DB (NFS) was willing to “create a separate system for some customers”. Once again we see the “survival of the corruptest” as any CF willing to do this as a “service” is obviously going to get a lot of order flow sent in its direction.
When the Goldman Sachs of the world have this many corrupt DTCC participating “securities intermediaries” willing to throw the securities laws under the bus then of course they’re proprietary trading statistics are going to be off the charts. Why do you think that the already ultra-wealthy hedge fund investors pay hedge fund managers the onerous 2% of funds under management and 20% of all profits? It’s because they’re gaining access to a special playing field tipped greatly in their favor. The price of admission isn’t expensive; it’s a bargain. That $11 billion in annual expenditures drives this entire “cycle of corruption”.
The hedge fund managers doing the abusive short selling also need to remember to save a little of this money stolen from Main Street “long” investors for their highly paid lobbyists to protect the corrupt status quo as well as the politicians willing to “oversee” this corruption.
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2010/34-62025.pdf
Violations
16. As a result of the conduct described above, GSEC willfully12 violated Rule 204T of Regulation SHO by failing to deliver certain securities or immediately purchase or borrow securities to close out the fail to deliver position by no later than the beginning of regular trading hours on the required date.