Month

I like all kinds of people, rich and poor. But poor people sadly don’t have much money. And of course plenty of rich people are poor in other ways and vice versa, but I’m talking about paper here. So I spend most of my time with rich ones — call it an occupational hazard. They tend to be more interesting but don’t laugh as hard, still though, we have lots of fun. So a buddy invited me to a conference. He was ke

Hope all goes well. No place buzzes like money-making Manhattan, I got pretty high. Things are picking up, you can feel it; maybe not in the real economy, but certainly in the paper economy. Met lots of bears with bulging eyeballs, squeezing does that. Guys don’t seem long yet. Overall: The mkt jumped and dollar dumped Mon in anticipation of Bernanke restarting his printing press. Free money is such a powerful halluc

The mkt jumped and dollar dumped Mon in anticipation of Bernanke restarting his printing press. Free money is such a powerful hallucinogen that you see all kinds of funny things. The PIIGS had good bond auctions, despite CDS in Ireland jumping to record highs (476bps). But more surreal was Petrobas’s $70bln share issue, 3.7x the biggest IPO ever, 10 days before presidential elections. Elsewhere, some lousy news conti

Hope all goes well. Great wk; saw my family, made some money, added some risk. Looked for clever option structures to be short the US dollar. Found a bunch. Lucked out and took some Euro/Yen shorts off before the Bank of Japan intervention. Off to NY next wk and then Switzerland the wk after; thank god we manage risk better than my schedule. Overall: StrongChinese data printed, IMF judges said they’ve stuck a “soft l

StrongChinese data printed, IMF judges said they’ve stuck a “soft landing”. New Basel III rules gave banks 8yrs to issue new equity capital, hilarious & predictable. EU & US data wasn’t great, no surprise there. But elsewhere, oh my, Erdogan won his referendum, Turkish stocks hit record high; Lira jumped. India hiked 50bps on robust growth/inflation; Rupee surged. Japan’s Kan survived leadership challenge, vo

Bumped into one of the big boys at a top 3 US bank. He’s a buddy so I came clean. Told him my story: You see, when your bank got the big bailout my capitalist conscience cried, “Eric, move your accounts from this wounded lamb and give it to a wolf.” But that’s a real hassle and I’m kinda busy, and of course you had that gov’t guarantee; I did nothing. Then without warning you cut my home-equity line of credit from $5

What a silly wk, hot air and garbage everywhere. WSJ announced the stress tests were unreliable (my kiddies knew that), and FT announced German banks need $135bln to meet rule changes (of course the rules won’t change for yrs). But the beach boys, hungover and tan, saw the tape on Tues and sold, sold, sold. Anglo Irish split into a good/bad bank, said, “the final cost won’t bankrupt Ireland”; so now we know the odds

Mara told me to, “Get out, go climb a mountain”. She does that before I jet off to meet lots of people. You see, speaking in front of strangers makes me anxious, always has. It’s part of my karma, it’s just who I am. And it might not make much sense, but that’s how karma works. Climbing helps make it go away. Plus, the more I speak, the better it gets, and I speak a lot these days, so I suck less. Mkts force traders

Hope all goes well. Got myself caught in a fast mkt in Chicago, lost count, still adding my fills, think I met somethin’ like 23 firms. The boys are getting loose in the saddle, ready to start switching horses soon; different tone from 3mths ago.. Overall: What a silly wk, hot air and garbage everywhere. WSJ announced the stress tests were unreliable (my kiddies knew that), and FT announced German banks need $135bln

As a kid I’d gaze up at airplanes and wish I could be in one looking down; wondered how small I musta looked. Careful what you wish for, eh? Nowadays I always grab the window and peer down. Greater NY, seething with endless miles of streets, towers and traffic, boasts 19.1mm dreamers. The LA sprawl quietly creeps up the hills, pressing its luck, as 12.9mm bake in its smog. They’re the top 2 US cities; population 32mm