A periodic blog dedicated to providing commentary and encouraging debate on topics in Economics and Finance.

About Me

Age: 26 Occupation: Private Equity

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Cramer: "I've sold all of my real estate"


You know it's bad when one of the smartest investors in America tells you to walk away from your house while you still can. The real shocker comes at the very end: "I've sold all of my real estate."



I've spoken about this until I was blue in the face. I'm finally getting a lot of company in my views.


-eternitus

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Thought of the Day...

The media did make a fuss about this May's abysmal pending home sales report (So I have to give them credit for that). However, they glossed over one key point. Read:

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The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in May, fell 3.5 percent to 97.7 from a downwardly revised level of 101.2 in April. The May index is the lowest since 89.8 in September 2001. via the International Business Times -.

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Um... didn't something really bad happen in September 2001? I can't quite put my finger on it...

Oh yeah... that 9/11 thing...

I mean, it's really, really, really bad when the only month you can find worse is the one where our country was attacked, thousands of people died and billions of dollars of damage was caused.

- eternitus

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

What a great fourth of July Present

I was able to borrow an internet connection for this short post...

Just in case you're the one guy who thinks everything is on the up and up in the public markets... This was written before Blackstone's announcement that it was taking the Company private.

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The market looks to be positioning for volatile price action at Hilton Hotels Corp (HLT), where upwards of 32,000 lots moved today in options trading – 15 times the daily average volume for the hotel chain. While twice as many calls as puts moved today, concentrations of volume favored the July and August 35.0 straddles, and the July and August 40.0 calls.

The abrupt increase in volatility positioning indicates that the market is bracing for turbulence in Hilton shares with an uncertain, upside bias. Hilton shares gained 7 percent today to close at $36.10 in heavy trading – and with no market-moving news of note, we wonder if there' something to the chatter. Implied volatility on Hilton options soared 20 percent and currently sits at just above 38 percent – significantly above the 25 percent recorded historical volatility on Hilton shares.

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Insider trading in stocks is one thing. However, when you're knowingly trading with insider information in options, you're really ripping someone off.

That's because options involve an agreement between two parties. Let's examine...

Johnny Insider - He's the brother of an analyst at Blackstone Group. His sister - Lucy Lips, the analyst, lets the cat out of the bag that Blackstone agreed to buy Hilton at $47.50, more than $13.00 greater than the current price on the market on July 3. Johnny has $10,000 to spare, and is looking to use this information to his advantage. He has two choices - buy approximately 200 shares of Hilton, which would make him $2,600... or he could use the implied leverage of options, and make 20 times that much (you'll see how in a bit)...

Honest George - He's a market maker in options - market makers provide a valuable service... constantly offering to buy and sell shares at certain prices, giving all of us liquidity. He doesn't have any insider information, and believes that Hilton shares aren't going above $40.00 any time soon. He decides to sell the right to purchase 10,000 Hilton shares at $40.00 per share before the end of August for $1.00 per share.

He's selling a call option... As a recap, the buyer (Johnny) pays a "premium" $1.00 to the seller (George) for the right to purchase the shares at a specified price ($40.00).

Initially, Johnny pays George $10,000... which George believes to be fair compensation for the possibility that the shares will exceed $40.00, which would mean that he'd have to buy them at the higher market price and sell them to Johnny for a loss. Unfortunately, Johnny knows something George does not.

Tomorrow, Hilton's market price will skyrocket to $47.50 and Johnny will exercise his options. This means that George will have to pay $475,000 for 10,000 shares of Hilton and then sell them to Johnny for $400,000, taking a $65,000 loss (the $10,000 premium offsets some of the loss). Johnny can now sell his shares at the market price, netting a $65,000 gain(he doesn't get the premium back. As you see... the options strategy is far more profitable than simply buying shares...

Now you see how Johnny ripped George off.

George is a market maker, so it's his company's money he's losing. $65,000 doesn't seem like a big deal... but George makes tens of thousands of these transactions per day.... His trading strategy is supposed to be "market neutral"... meaning that he should make small amounts of money on each trade if the market goes either way. However, such a strategy only works when you know as much as everyone else does. George's exposure to loss may have reached into the millions before he got wise, costing the investors in his company (Average joes who invest in Goldman, Interactive Brokers Group, etc.) tons of money and putting his job in jeopardy.

I hope the SEC finds every one of the "Johnny's" out there. We all deserve a level field when we're trading in the markets.

- eternitus