Queensland Floods: An Email from Australia
As you might guess, I’ve been following the Queensland floods with a mix of shock and concern. Yesterday, I received this email from a friend. He does a great job explaining the magnitude of the crisis from a personal perspective:
Wiki-Valuations: The Inside Skinny on $50 BN for Facebook
Goldman Sachs just awarded a $50 billion valuation to Facebook. And in a shrewd branding maneuver, the storied financial behemoth is offering its high-net-worth clients the option to co-invest in the world’s leading social media site.
Before investors jump in with their big boots, however, I encourage them to review this groundbreaking analysis—which I unearthed over at Herding Cats.
Have You Heard the Dow Piano?
CNN Money turned the Dow’s 2010 performance into piano music. It’s not Billy Joel. (I guess someone didn’t care for college bowl games over the New Year’s break.) But it’s worth a listen.
Have You Heard the Dow Piano?
CNN Money turned the Dow’s 2010 performance into piano music. It’s not Billy Joel. (I guess someone didn’t care for college bowl games over the New Year’s break.) But it’s worth a listen.
What is High-Frequency Trading?
Hedge funds that build their investment style around the lightning-fast trading technology are known as “high-frequency traders.” But how do they make money trading in and out of securities in nanoseconds? Here’s a video from Marketplace that spells it out:
Why Hedge Fund Fees Scuk*
A few days ago I came across a terrific post by Terry Smith on his blog, Straight Talking. Using Warren Buffett’s investment returns, he illustrates why the two-and-twenty standard is egregious. Hedge funds win disproportionately when they charge 2 percent on assets and keep 20 percent of the profits.
Here’s what Smith writes:
Exclusive Photo of Madoff Inside Prison
People email me all kinds of things. Photos. Gossip from Wall Street. Viral jokes. About anything you can imagine. Sometimes I get stuff from the wrong side of barbed-wire fences.
Like today. There’s an exclusive photo of Bernie Madoff inside. It arrived fifteen minutes ago from the federal correctional complex in Butner, North Carolina.
Tweet Here to Make Stocks Go Up
You know all those investment books—send me $29.95 and I’ll show you how to make millions in the stock market? Forget it. You want market returns. Just tweet this 300-word post and watch portfolios soar. Yours free. Click now and watch the money pour in.
Norb Vonnegut
The New York Times describes my novels as “money porn,” “a red-hot franchise,” and “glittery thrillers about fiscal malfeasance.” Through fiction I explore the dark side of money and the motivations of those who have it, want more, and will steamroll anybody who gets in their way.