Sunday, January 27, 2008

Lord I was born a Ramblin' Man.....

So Societe General decides to unload a $7 billion loss onto one trader. They say he hacked into their systems and created offsetting trades to make the position look smaller. I executed trades for their prop desks in the past, and would take a beating by them if we were off on a couple of hundred shares. Trust me, they know of every position on every desk at the bank. They have risk controls for how many rolls of toilet paper are used in a week. The only way I see this as a "rouge" trader, would be if he ran up commissions with one of his broker buddies. A couple of thousand euro Bordeaux's on an expense report would be the first place to look.

So back to the market. A classic panic and rally to end the week with some consolidation. Feeling the bottom is near as the public is getting chills of 2001 all over again. Remember fear and greed are the real drivers of financial assets. Right now fear is on top, then greed will take over once the easy money is made at these levels.

Trade long here until April Earnings. Then I would look at shorts as that will draw the public back in.

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