07 Aug 2008

07 Aug 2008

07 Aug 2008

When will the economy get some good news? Portfolio.com's Zubin Jelveh talks about the credit crunch and a possible second stimulus package.

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:56:19 -0700

Portfolio.com challenges President Bush's claim that Wall Street is drunk.

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0700

How do you keep an airline aloft with astronomical oil prices? British Airways' C.E.O. offers his take.

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:39:39 -0700

Nets C.E.O. Brett Yormark defends the economics of investing in a $300,000 stadium suite.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:51:18 -0700

2008-08-07T15:44:15-04:00

Rebecca Engmann Darst co-authored this article.
Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) - Uneventful action in the share price of the Energy Select Sector SPDR today gave option traders the darkness of cover to seek sizable put-spread positions protecting against a new pullback in oil prices. The action here is extremely noteworthy simply by dint of the size. First we observed a trader sell a 20,000 lot put spread in the August contract between strikes 70 and 75 – possibly the rollout of an existing position down into the September contract, where a long spread was deployed between strikes 65 and 71. Current premiums suggest that a long position would cost a total of $1.59 – requiring a break below $69.41 (5%) below current levels to break even – although the sale of the August spread might have mitigated the cost of the long September position somewhat. We were also informed of a sizable cash spread in the XLE involving some $2.875 million, a 5-leg trade in which the trader sold 5,000 August 70 puts, 10,000 September 70 puts, then bought 5,000 September 65 puts and a 20,000-lot December 60/69 put spread.
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2008-08-07T13:46:03-04:00

Christopher Holt submits:
“Performance persistence” is never far from the minds of both hedge fund investors and researchers.  Many studies have attempted to determine if good managers can actually remain good or if their performance is destined to “revert to the mean”.  In general, they conclude that persistence does exist ... bad managers remain bad.  Unfortunately, the opposite is not generally believed to be very true.   
One author of a recent study on return persistence, Daniel Capocci, found that previous returns showed modest predictive ability and wrote on these pages last March:
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2008-08-07T12:46:32-04:00

(AFP/File) - The Bank of England building in central London. The Bank of England froze British interest rates at 5.0 percent on Thursday for the fourth month in a row as it mulled slowing economic growth and high inflation.(AFP/File/Shaun Curry)

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:31:50 GMT

(AFP) - View of a wheat crop taken near Caen, northwestern France. European grain harvests will improve this year, the EU predicted Thursday, in line with northern hemisphere trends that are pushing down world prices after months of food protests by the world's poorest.(AFP/Mychele Daniau)

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:30:47 GMT

(Reuters) - The headquarters of food giant Nestle is pictured in Vevey August 6, 2008. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:23:53 GMT

 

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 18:36:18 EDT

 

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:01:00 EDT

 

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:46:35 EDT

 

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:16:04 EDT