Back in 1995 my club AFC Ajax was the reigning champion of the Europe – of the world, to be more specific. The old stadium was still in use and the new one had yet to be build. In England the Blackburn Rovers won the title and over here FC Volendam (!) played and lostRead more
Editors in the financial press need a lot of imagination to describe the distressed world around us. Cutting jobs, slashing dividends and reducing estimates are the most common lines on the front page and hardly leave any room for poetic creativity. Enter the zombie banks. The term financial “Zombies” has been coined by economist EdwardRead more
Avoiding mistakes is a rewarding trait for traders. Pressing the wrong buttons or trading with the wrong variables will invariably cost you dearly. A true source for self-hatred too. The same logic doesn’t count for the stock exchange themselves. Running an exchange shouldn’t be regarded as rocket science. Open your trading pit or computer systemRead more
German luxury carmaker Porsche has made 1 billion profit on selling cars in 2008, and 6.8 billion on trading options. Most of the option trading revenue is coming from cornering the market in Volkswagen shares. Powerplay in derivative markets Powerplay in the financial markets has been defended by “hedging” themselves against a rise in sharepriceRead more
After reading Paul Kedrosky’s post about Harvard’s portfolio changes I decided to walk through its holdings in the latest SEC 13F report. Top investments where clearly some Emerging Markets ETF’s, but assumed this was because of the concentration of Emerging Market investments in a few lines, while regular stock holdings were scattered in a lotRead more
