Nasdaq may be planning to sweeten its compensation offer to entities that suffered losses due to technical problems at the exchange on the day of Facebook’s initial public offering, The New York Post reports, which would fit the pattern: Nasdaq makes an offer, the market makers—Citigroup, UBS, Citadel and Knight—talk tough, Nasdaq ups the Read More
As Europeans return from August vacations, Greece is at the top of the to-do list. Athens needs another bailout; the Germans may be wary, but are they willing to risk a Grexit? Some hedge funds are nibbling at Greek debt, increasingly optimistic of further European assistance. Another way to bet on Europe: Read More
Today was the day that suddenly everyone knew that Libor was rigged, always. Not municipalities which entered into credit default swaps, maybe—though in which case, who was giving them advice?—but nearly everyone else. And absolutely the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which revealed in response to a congressional inquiry that a Barclays Read More
“Sorry” doesn’t help: Is anybody happy with Nasdaq’s plan to dole out $40 million in cash payments and future discounts to compensate market participants for losses suffered during the technical glitches that delayed trading in Facebook stock on May 18? The New York Stock Exchange cried foul, arguing that Nasdaq’s plan “is tantamount to forcing Read More
Nearly three weeks later, Nasdaq got around to explaining how it plans to compensate investors who suffered losses due to delays processing Facebook trades on May 18, the day Zuck & Co. rung in their IPO. There’s some interesting stuff here:
As previously noted, the exchange intends to distribute $13.7 million directly to investors—the Read More
No wonder they lost track of client money: The two trustees seeking to recover claims against MF Global provided some fascinating detail this week on how the failed broker-dealer shuttled funds.
Louis Freeh, the trustee unwinding the MF Global parent company under Chapter 11, said the firm moved some of its risky bets on European Read More
It’s called the FINRA BrokerCheck, people, and before you give some schmloe your money, it wouldn’t hurt to use it. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges today against a New York-based fund manager named Jason J. Konior, who allegedly sold $11 million worth of limited partnerships in his Absolute Fund LP, then siphoned proceeds to pay redemptions from earlier investors. So, like, a pyramid scheme. Read More
If, inexplicably, you’re not interested in JPMorgan’s stunning $2 billion loss on a derivatives position accumulated by a trader known as Voldemoort, the London whale and just plain old Bruno Iksil, we’ve got the news from the rest of Wall Street: Read More
Say we were to offer you a value-investing approach to rare coins—a little fundamental analysis of the 1933 gold double eagle, say, or some exegesis on why the 1913 buffalo nickel is still trading under tangible book. Is that something you’d be interested in?
Because if it is, we have a guy you should meet.
A press release from the SEC occasioned a trip on the Wayback Machine yesterday, to see if anything turned up on one Arnett L. Waters, president and CEO of A.L. Waters Capital, a Braintree, Mass. firm that allegedly solicited investments in an array of funds, then used the assets to pay for the manager’s personal expenses.
Indeed, we found an interesting nugget. After sketching out his career in sales at a string of brokerages, including Merrill Lynch, Shearson Lehman and DLJ—details that appear to be borne out by a FINRA broker check—Mr. Waters’ claims to have made the observation that launched his career running money:
Read More“The dramatic increase in rare coins in the 1970s and 1980s convinced Mr. Waters that a value-investing approach existed in the growing marketplace. Therefore, in 1990, he founded Windsor Park Ltd., an international purveyor of high mint state United States gold and silver coins.”
Zuck enters Facebook’s first road show presentation by the side door, Yahoo! CEO says sorry for … the distraction and a financier with fashion sense steps in to save Barney’s from bankruptcy court. Today’s morning roundup:
Road show: Mark Zuckerberg slipped into the midtown Sheraton through a side door to address investors yesterday, and left in the company of “a dozen beefy security guards,” the Journal reports, as Facebook kicked off its IPO road show. The presentation opened with a 30-minute video presentation available here. Following a delay while Facebook’s 27-year-old CEO was apparently having a hard time finding his way back from the bathroom, Zuck, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman fielded questions on the company’s strategies for China, mobile revenues and its recent $1 billion Instagram acquisition. With excitement building, analysts have been quick to offer opinions on Facebook, with Sterne Agee slapping a buy on the company and Wedbush Securities assigning a $44 price target to the stock.
So sorry: Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson apologized to employees for lying on his … wait, no, for the distraction caused by the “disclosure of my academic credentials.” You can find the whole letter (addressed “Yahoos:”) over at Dealbook. Third Point Capital’s Dan Loeb has been calling for Mr. Thompson to step down since last week, when the hedge fund manager asserted that the executive lied on his resume.
Trader exodus: Nearly two dozen of Wall Street’s most profitable credit traders have defected from banks in the past 13 months, Bloomberg reports, as lenders cut bonuses and regulators seek to limit the types of trading banks can engage in.
Chopping red tape: Bank of America data chief John Bottega has a fourth-degree black belt in Okinawa karate, so watch what you say about consolidating bank data, a cause Bottega championed in a previous position at the New York Fed.
