weekend notes

Hope all goes well. November. A fresh start. New beginning. Every day is of course. Most men just forget that — but not the Greeks. They live in the moment. Unbound by yesterday’s commitments, and debts. Announced a referendum. Then cancelled it. Day-to-day their mood’ll change. The outcome won’t. No one’s getting repaid. Mario Draghi turned the page on a stubbornly hawkish ECB. Cut rates hi

Hope all goes well. My son Jackson rode shotgun. On a narrow dirt road. And heading into a sharp turn warned, “Slow down a car’s coming.” He was right. After the narrow miss, all puffed up, he announced, “I predicted the future.” At least one of us did this wk. Yeah, prognosticating ain’t easy. It’s humbling too. But it’s our job. Plus we marry good risk/reward trade structures to those prediction

Hope all goes well. Busy wk here. Went through the portfolio with a stiff rake. Cleaned up. Of course, we’d cut out the real rot over the past 6wks. But what few twigs remained, we gathered and burned. Then as hopes rose (and shorts squeezed) in anticipation of Europe’s latest grand plan we added a Global Contraction theme to the portfolio. You see, despite the excitement about a European Spring,

Hope all goes well. Virgin redeye. LA-Heathrow. Arrived unshaven, disheveled, dressed down. Zipped through Fastrack. Immigration officer sized me up, guessed, “Banker.”  So I tried it on, “No sir, I help old people, pensioners.” He raised a brow. And I smiled, couldn’t help it, it just snuck out. Yeah, blew my own cover, so came clean, “Sorry, yes sir, Finance.” Gotta work on that delivery, someda

Hope all goes well. Yeah, it happened. Snuck up on me. Always does. Autumn. Just seemed oddly darker one morning. The air changed too. Tasted different. Of course, next come pumpkins, followed by turkeys. Dradles. Then Santa. Good little boys get coal this year, naughty ones get orphaned. Yeah the Street’ll be snowing pink slips, it’s Occupied too. So what’s a scared little market-maker to do? Boo

Hope all goes well. Jetted off to Mississippi. A proud farming town. Entered a home. One of my partners stood tall, surrounded by his clan. Their patriarch lay flat, at peace. Walked down the line, paying respect. Got to Perry. Hugged. Lost my words, he did too. And our eyes couldn’t quite meet, or things woulda gotten real wet. Been a rainy mth. Glad to flip the calendar. I turn 45 Tues. Yeah, th

Hope all goes well. Got things real wrong. Feels good to get it out in the open. No joke. Light is nature’s great disinfectant. Started Sept with a big bet: the Euro would fall versus Emerging Market FX. Check out a chart of Brazil’s Real (fell over 20% in Sept). OMFG. Anyhow, trading markets for over 20yrs conditions you to flee fast (and structure well). ’Cause if you live to fight another day,

Hope all goes well. It was one of those wks. Raining. Pooring. At home. At work. Yeah, that’s Life. What happened? Well, for many mths the 2/20 crowd’s been streaming through theatre turnstiles in Rio, Tijuana, Jakarta, Moscow, Mumbai, you name it – they just love foreign action films (we do too). Anyhow, some prankster musta yelled, “Fire!” Or even worse, “Grease Fire!” And all hell broke l

Hope all goes well. Stormed through NY. The headwind we once faced has shifted; felt a breeze at my back. I’m real grateful. Met many old friends, new ones too. Consensus across my 20 meetings? Mkts are pricing bad economic/political news and they’re gonna get it (for a long time), but banking systems ain’t gonna freeze-up like’08-’09, ’cause central banks got good playbooks, but Obanke is r