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....................................... Traders Magazine put together a special advertising supplement on 'Best Execution' earlier this year. It's interesting to read how each advertiser (Goldman Sachs, Harborside, ITG, etc.) approaches the topic. Articles from Traders Magazine are archived at their website and are free and open to all. Posted at 11:31 PM, GMT
Téa Leoni talks about having sex with David Duchovny in a sauna:
"I was shaking and dehydrated afterward. We were ill for about twenty-four hours. How stupid is that?"
Posted at 9:51 PM, GMT
The Chairman explains a long trade in today's Trading for Dummies lesson. This is Lesson #75 and when I get to lesson #100 I'm going to quit posting them for free and switch to a pay-per-view format. Not sure about how much I'll charge, it may be as much as 5-10 times the current nickel I ask you to contribute. ;-) Posted at 11:41 AM, GMT
Gold futures (GC), Daily Chart Posted at 11:40 AM, GMT
MaoXian.com keeps on going up and down in the Google Directory, happily being placed at #1 from time to time. It seems to go up at night and fall during the day. Be nice if it just got stuck at the top.
Posted at 9:55 AM, GMT
Mary Williams Walsh wrote an article in yesterday's NYTimes called 'Failed Pensions: A Painful Lesson in Assumptions.'
"Employees at all levels are supposed to get basic information about their pension plans once a year, but it is difficult, if not
impossible, to check the validity of the underlying assumptions. Companies are not required to disclose current, detailed information
about their pension plans."
It's not really an issue of the 'validity' of the assumptions -- their 'reasonableness' is the issue. When management monkeys with the work that the actuaries do, I think the auditor is aware of this. (I believe all plans with 100 or more participants must have an annual audit of their financial statements.) It's the auditors' job to keep management from 'gaming the system.' And it depends, some companies voluntarily disclose many actuarial assumptions (pay increases, staff turnover, marital status, retirement ages, etc.). It would be nice if it were mandated that companies had to disclose a lot more than they do. Of course the best thing a new company can do is never start a defined benefit plan. Posted at 9:00 AM, GMT
Caroline Baum writes about "whether central bankers should respond to perceived asset bubbles in the same way they react to inflation and other events that have the potential to destabilize the economy."
"Asset bubbles don't erupt involuntarily. In most cases, they are an outgrowth of excess credit creation, which originates with the
central bank."
Baum no doubt got the idea to write the article after reading the San Francisco Fed's latest Economic Letter, 'Should the Fed React to the Stock Market?' Here's the most amusing bit in the FRBSF's article:
"In one notable instance (February 1994), the [FOMC] transcripts suggest that FOMC members were worried that raising the funds rate by
50 basis points might trigger a crash in the stock market, which was thought to be overvalued at the time."
The S&P 500 was around 475 in February 1994. I think that perfectly answers the question about whether the Fed should act to curb "suspected bubbles." Posted at 8:05 AM, GMT
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Chairman MaoXian |
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