The Tasgall Group

The Kirk Report has a good post on the 48 Laws of Power…? and how the laws might apply to traders.? While many might be questionable, some are quite good, such as:

9. Win through your actions, never through argument. (Don’t waste time convincing others on message boards how good or bad a stock is and/or telling people how smart you were because of good calls you’ve made in the past. Instead, trade the stock and make your profit. Talk will never pay your bills. Show others by demonstration, not by time wasting chatter.)

From the Financial News by way of DealBook:

Some investors are deterred by funds that charge fees below the standard scale of 1.5% to 2% management fees and 20% performance fees.

A partner at a multibillion-[dollar] hedge fund manager said some had declined to invest in a new fund it launched because its fees were low: ?They could not take us seriously,? he said.

Just like with many products aimed at the high end of the market, a high price gives a perception of high value regardless of actual ability to deliver that higher value.

From FT Alphaville:

Red Kite Management, a $1bn metals-trading hedge fund, has suffered losses of up to 15 per cent so far this year… The news sparked heavy falls on the metals markets…

The report had a marked impact in the metals markets on Friday afternoon. In trading on the London Metal Exchange the price of copper fell 6 per cent, while aluminium was down 3 per cent and zinc slumped more than 8 per cent. ?Fund liquidation?a lot of stops triggered?a lot of the stuff on the back of the Red Kite news,? another trader told Reuters.

While a 15 to 20% loss doesn’t seem so bad, the fact that it has occurred in the last 5 weeks may be a harbinger of more trouble… (more…)

If you’re a hippy and are interested in lowering your carbon footprint, you might find an unexpected place to do so in the stock market and be able to profit at the same time… consider investing in timber. Both Rayonier (RYN) and Plum Creek Timber (PCL) are publicly traded companies that own significant timberland, and if logic holds, the timberland absorb enough carbon dioxide to offset your own personal production. (more…)

Found over at Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis (about half-way down the page):

The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter is reporting ?Twelve lenders have now gone caput since December 2006?. This number has has been increasing at a rate of 1-2 a week since December. Two of those lenders were among the top twenty subprime lenders. One of them was Ownit Mortgage, the other was Mortgage Lender Network. Ownit Mortgage and MLN both went bankrupt.

Mish wrote that post yesterday, and today the number is at 13.? Ouch.

The British ONS (Office of National Statistics) has created and made public a Personal Inflation Calculator. As you would expect, it applies and compares the values you enter to the measured CPI in Great Britain, but it’s still pretty darn cool.

The ONS “is fighting back against accusations, fueled by newspaper campaigns, that its inflation index is inaccurate and underestimates the rate of inflation experienced by most people.”

Anyone want to take bets on how long it will take the BLS to create something like this too?

Oohh… pretty:

Read more about the world wealth density… and a few other random thoughts at Econobrowser.

The figure was released in a study by McKinsey & Co. that maps financial assets around the globe and seeks to track the flows of these assets as they move from one region to another, putting hard numbers on the oceans of capital washing up around the globe.

Read more at BigPicture.

Those crafty bookmakers over at TradeSports have decided to put the odds making to the probability of a US Recession in 2007… and here’s the result of the betting on their website:

(more…)

There is a list of 25 potential surprises for 2007 by Doug Kass at The Street.com. I actually like the summary version at The Big Picture as it’s briefer but still has the same amusing punch.

These are not intended to be predictions, but rather “events that have a reasonable chance of occurring, despite the general perception that the odds are very long.” (more…)