Posts tagged as:

crash

Driver’s ed for finance

June 28, 2010

James Surowiecki writes an excellent piece for the New Yorker on the state of financial illiteracy, concluding 1) we have it and 2) we have to get rid of it. Ultimately, he concludes that some form of basic financial education should be mandated before people can partake in purchasing financial products. The government’s new consumer-protection [...]

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What Europe Did

May 25, 2010

In a piece called "Laughing as you Sink," Clarke and Dawe explain the European Debt Crisis -- this is required watching: (And yes, my title stems from LOST withdrawal.) (Via The Big Picture)

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More on the crash

May 11, 2010

The Big Picture provides an excellent review of the crash-that-must-not-be-named which echoes my thoughts from this weekend: Do you notice how we’re unwittingly restricting our analysis to what the sellers did? The offer side of the trading that saw the S&P 500 lose -5% of its value in the span of about 3 minutes – that [...]

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The trade that broke the market's back

May 11, 2010

In a thoroughly ridiculous analysis, the WSJ is trying to pin Thursday's crash on a single options trade. Conveniently, the trade was made by Universa, the fund advised by black swan devotee Nassim Taleb. The body of the article uses phrases like "contributed" and "along with likely dozens of other trades", but the title's unanswered [...]

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On crashes, briefly

May 9, 2010

Congress will be looking into Thursday's stock market plunge, with the likely outcome that we are forced to admit that we didn't actually learn much from twenty years ago (1987) or two years ago (2008). In all three cases, sudden selling was aggravated by algorithmic trading of one form or another. In only one (2008) [...]

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Cancel all orders!

May 8, 2010

I can't stop watching this. A guy chooses the worst possible moment for a stock market webinar. He loses his mind around 1:10; by 2:35 he's talking like a robot. We call this a capitulation! Every time he says "this is what happens," I think of Walter's rant in The Big Lebowski (which I will not [...]

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On fat fingers

May 7, 2010

I don't believe that a trader error kicked off yesterday's crash. I do believe that computers exacerbated it. I also believe that there were transactional errors following the initial collapse. I would like to point out that when I say "computers exacerbated it," I include both HFT, algorithmic trading, and every retail investor's trailing stop-loss. [...]

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The end of the world, relatively speaking

May 7, 2010

Bloomberg has a story today which takes a close look at an Apple investor who was caught in yesterday's turmoil. Apple traded down more than 15% on the day before snapping back to a -4% finish. This particular investor first purchased his 26 shares of Apple in late 2007, for $189. He sold them in [...]

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Viva la banker

January 3, 2010

Coldplay's Viva la Vida could be Wall Street's anthem: I used to rule the world Seas would rise when I gave the word Now in the morning I sleep alone Sweep the streets I used to own I used to roll the dice Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes Listen as the crowd would [...]

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The regulation bubble

November 10, 2009

Breaking down Senator Dodd's financial reform bill.

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The Hero of 1549

January 16, 2009

The resume of Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III of US Airways flight 1549 has been put online.  It is amazing. (PDF link)

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Canada Geese Take Down US Airways 1549

January 15, 2009

US Airways flight 1549 crash landed in the Hudson this afternoon not far from our office. I think "crash landed" is a much better way of describing the event than the headlines you may have seen -- "Jet Crashes in Hudson River", "Jet Ditches in Hudson River", which sound considerably more violent. The pilot did [...]

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