Wall Street Gambling, Price Manipulation, etc

Yeah- over my head as well.
I enjoy looking at markets as they are such curious animals.
The do tend to nibble on any fingers put through the cage though..

 

Interesting article,...and one conclusion...
"So far, the SEC has held hearings and taken halting steps to develop a central repository for high-frequency-trading data on the stock exchanges. But a functioning system is probably years away, and even then it won’t deliver real-time information.

Understanding who wins and who loses in the equity markets might prompt the agency to get serious. The bottom line is it still needs to draft rules to ensure that the fastest traders on earth don’t pile on in the event of another flash crash that might burn us all."


....and this in the follow-on comments...
"Flash crash of May 2010. No specific culprit or cause identified. Market crashes 1,000 points in minutes. Retail investors that sold during flash crash to preserve capital are not reimbursed one penny when the crash is determined to have been caused by a "glitch". Retail investors that rushed in and bought near the bottom of the 1,000 point crash have all trades reversed and profits wiped out by the exchanges! This is the place we are supposed to save our retirement money??????????? "

Think about it, where are all the retirement funds invested today....certainly not in interest bearing accounts...very minimal interest being paid. These retirement acct fund managers are all placing these huge blocks of retirement savings at the disposal of these HEDGE-FUND managers who use those funds to gamble on Wall street. No wonder none of the wall street guys want things to change,...dry up some of their play monies.

We really need to do some police-ing.

 

Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street

I found this video link in the discussions on one of those referenced sites. Its rather long and and tedious so not everyone will wade thru it. I did and will just post a few hi-lited time slots you might visit:

Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street
(Quants are the math wizards and computer programmers in the engine room of our global financial system who designed the financial products that almost crashed Wall st)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ed2FWNWwE3I#!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ed2FWNWwE3I

...move the curser along to these time slots if you only wish to look at hi-lites:
11:15
12:10
19:00 hedgefund profits
23:90 banking becomes
27:05
27"40
35:15 back into old habits
35:40 quant schooling...notice the huge Asain participation..problematic for the future
37:40 new HFT
40:30 speed
41:35 price not value
43:00 not traditional banking,...rather gambling

 

Lets see, this video presentation from 60-minutes is a bit easier to understand. It speaks to this 'gambling on wall street' subject as well.

Steve Kroft examines the complicated financial instruments known as credit default swaps and the central role they are playing in the unfolding economic crisis.

The Bet That Blew Up Wall Street
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4546583n

 

When I think Richard was fired. I miss him.

 

HFT-so what? I may still have 10 programs of such on my computer but never liked using them.

As for day trading being gambling,I believe otherwise as do many acquaintances.
Everything is a gamble-you gamble every day that you won't get run down on the street-the best you can do is do your best,learn and see how it works. If it doesn't work out try another thing to trade.

A friend trades cocoa only-he knows how much it rained on the fields every day,and if the sun level was higher or lower,etc.
I've driven his 2011 Bugatti...

It is gambling-however-when you don't know what the F you are doing and hope to make a fortune in 3 months because you bought the latest 'system" for $47 off of eBay.

I posted a couple months ago my trading results for 2 days last fall- what was it-87% wins and $8000 profit in 2 hours trading? I forget.
How many of you copied those results,really looked into what I was doing and how I hedged and staged things and the date and time of the trades-and maybe came up with how I did it?

I bet none.

On that note gents,have fun-I am off fishing for 10 days.

 

Are they with us or against us?
I suppose it depends on when you ask...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100477456

 

Great episode from yesterday.

Keiser Report: Mystery Meat - Shut Up & Eat! (E409)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIpS9kooj-o&list=SPPszygYHA9K2ZtV_1KphSugBB7iZqbFyz&index=8

{""In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss where you go when you can't even afford mystery meat? They also wonder whether Germany's gold has already been sent out to slaughter while the men running the money abattoirs continue sending us photos of the intact gold. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to HBOS whistleblower, Paul R. Moore, about the absurdity of naming the FSA twice and why eating dodgy securities is not a victimless crime.""}

 

Just like Mortgage backed securities, mislabeling of fish is widespread and profitable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/s...ed-fish-a-widespread-problem-in-new-york.html

" Ninety-four percent of fish sold as white tuna was not tuna at all but in many cases a fish known as snake mackerel, or escolar, which contains a toxin that can cause severe diarrhea if more than a few ounces of meat are ingested. "

"Instances of mislabeling were found in samples from all 16 sushi restaurants from which tested fish was obtained. "

"while 87% of snapper is mislabeled. "

Next on the menu are fresh AAA Mortgage backed securities.............

 

Gold is loosing a bit of its shine..:

 

It`s actually a great buying opportunity.

 

Sure, buy on the dip- just be certain it is one....

Buying here is....risky:

 

http://goldreview.com/

http://maxkeiser.com/



Gold May Hit $2,000 Some Time in 2013: Weinberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/wein...-sometime-in-2013-zkyQHC61T1ePkubUxugg9g.html

 

Still falling:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...13-low-on-slowing-manufacturing-spending.html