Soros Launches Effort to Battle Free-Market Zeal | Newsweek Voices - Michael Hirsh | Newsweek.com

Soros Launches Effort to Battle Free-Market Zeal | Newsweek Voices - Michael Hirsh | Newsweek.com: "...financier George Soros is announcing a $50 million effort to speed things along. This week Soros is gathering some of the leading practitioners of the market-skeptic school, who were marginalized during the era of 'free-market fundamentalism,' among them Nobelists Joseph Stiglitz, George Akerlof

Financial Bubbles: Why Do Fools Fall in Love? at SmartMoney.com

Financial Bubbles: Why Do Fools Fall in Love? at SmartMoney.comBefore we get to finance, consider these two common occurrences:1. Imagine it is Friday Night. You do not have to work until Monday. In fact you have no commitments. You just finished all of your tests, papers, etc. You are home alone. All of your friends are out. You imagine them having great time "out" frequenting local "

Nightly Business Report . Your Mind and Your Money | PBS

Nightly Business Report . Your Mind and Your Money | PBS: "Behavioral finance teaches us few people always make logical investment decisions. Psychological and emotional biases get in the way. NBR's year-long 'Your Mind and Your Money' series aims to help investors understand those biases and make more rational decisions.Reports and interviews will appear in the NBR program on select Mondays, and

A graph of why you should not hold levered ETF's long term

DO you remember last week when I tweeted from the FMA conference about the luncheon speaker who pointed out the fact that levered ETF's that regularly relever are good at mirroring the market on a daily basis, but in the long term are bad bets since they are short an embedded option on Gamma which makes it very likely that the levered fund will be a money loser?To show this, let's look at two

WGBH American Experience - The Crash of 1929

WGBH American Experience - The Crash of 1929Good video of the crash from PBS. I can not figure out how to embed it.

Seeds of adult dishonesty are sown in youth, study finds -- latimes.com

Seeds of adult dishonesty are sown in youth, study finds -- latimes.com: "A new study claims there is truth to the adage: People who cheated on exams in high school are considerably more likely to be dishonest later in life, according to a report to be released today by the Josephson Institute of Ethics.The study, which surveyed nearly 7,000 people in various age groups nationwide, offers a

An Experiment in Hedging With ETFs - WSJ.com

Remember what I mentioned last week? Holding leveraged ETF's log term is generally a losing game.An Experiment in Hedging With ETFs - WSJ.com: "ProShares warns investors that it aims to have the funds' movements correspond to the inverse of the relevant market indicator on a daily basis. Over more time, the effects of compounding can (and generally will) dilute or enhance the results. For the

Nightly Business Report . Your Mind and Your Money | PBS

Nightly Business Report . Your Mind and Your Money | PBS: "Behavioral finance teaches us few people always make logical investment decisions. Psychological and emotional biases get in the way. NBR's year-long 'Your Mind and Your Money' series aims to help investors understand those biases and make more rational decisions.Reports and interviews will appear in the NBR program on select Mondays,

YouTube - Shlomo Benartzi - Leading Authority on Behavioural Finance

YouTube - Shlomo Benartzi - Leading Authority on Behavioural Finance: "Professor Shlomo Benartzi is a leading authority on behavioural finance with special interests in retirement planning, investor behaviour and behavioural wealth management."His discussion is just an introduction but he definitely hits some good points. For instance, I know I am guilty of not refinancing nearly enough. And

GMAC seeking third round of bailout funds - WSJ - Oct. 28, 2009

GMAC seeking third round of bailout funds - WSJ - Oct. 28, 2009: "GMAC Financial Services is seeking a third round of bailout funds from the U.S. Treasury Department, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal....the U.S. government could provide an additional $2.8 billion to $5.6 billion to the lender....The U.S. has already injected $12.5 billion in the lender since December 2008 and owns

Why Sleeping On It Helps | World of Psychology

WOW. This one has some major ramifications.The short version is that the authors found that sometimes we really do think too much and when we do, out biases interfere with our knowledge and ability and our decision making actually gets worse. On the other hand sleeping (and I would venture yoga, meditation, and exercise) seems to clear the brain so that it (we) can make a better decision.Why

Naissance Capital to Invest in Firms With Women as Directors - NYTimes.com

Naissance Capital to Invest in Firms With Women as Directors - NYTimes.com: "Naissance Capital, based in Zurich, will start the Women’s Leadership Fund in January, which will invest in companies whose boards include women. It also plans to take minority stakes in companies without women on their boards and to use its ownership to encourage changes.R. James Breiding, a co-founder of Naissance

White House mulls unwinding too big to fail firms | Politics | Reuters

White House mulls unwinding too big to fail firms | Politics | Reuters: "A council that includes the U.S. Treasury Secretary would help set policy for dealing with troubled financial firms under White House plans to deal with the 'too big to fail' problem, CNBC television said on Monday citing sources.The Obama administration would give the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp authority to unwind large

CHART OF THE DAY: The iPod And Big Mac Indexes Just Don't Work

CHART OF THE DAY: The iPod And Big Mac Indexes Just Don't Work: "...a side-by-side comparison of the Big Mac Index and the iPod Nano Index suggests that these might not really be good metrics for measuring currency valuations. As you can see, the two indexes result in wildly uncorrelated results. If it were really a matter of currency valuation, you’d expect both to show similar valuation

Challenging Modern Portfolio Theory greenfaucet

We will be discussing this in class soon! Challenging Modern Portfolio Theory greenfaucet: "The costs of getting in financial stress are high, much less when a firm is teetering on the edge of insolvency. The cost of financing assets goes up dramatically when a company needs financing in bad times.But the fair weather use of the M-M theorems is still useful, in my opinion. The cost of the

Galleon insider trading: 8 trades they allegedly made - Oct. 19, 2009

Examples of the specific alleged insider trades:Galleon insider trading: 8 trades they allegedly made - Oct. 19, 2009: "The government's case in what it is calling the largest insider trading case involving a U.S. hedge fund contains a detailed list of trades involving household-name companies.Investigators have pieced together a case that alleges more than $25 million in illegal gains based on

Finance clubs manage millions, segue into future Wall Street jobs on CollegiateTimes.com

This is of special interest to SIMM students. It is about Virginia Tech's programs.Finance clubs manage millions, segue into future Wall Street jobs on CollegiateTimes.com: "“They’ve given us the money for two reasons,” said Eric Eichelberger, BASIS co-CEO and senior engineering major. “One is to produce competitive returns for the university and use that money toward scholarships and programs.

Instant herding?

KaChing Lets Investors See and Mirror Experts’ Trades - NYTimes.com: "KaChing, a Web site where 400,000 amateur and professional investors manage virtual portfolios. Others have logged on to see what the investors on the site are doing and make the same trades in their own real portfolios.On Monday, KaChing is to add a new twist. Customers can set up brokerage accounts that automatically mirror

Wall Street's Naked Swindle : Rolling Stone

Interesting articles do appear in Rolling Stone. So now you can say you read it for the finance. :)Wall Street's Naked Swindle : Rolling Stone: "On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, somebody — nobody knows who — made one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen. The mystery figure spent $1.7 million on a series of options, gambling that shares in the venerable investment bank Bear Stearns would

Ground floor and Christian Finance Faculty Association

Want to get in on the Ground floor of a new group? Here is your chance.."The inaugural meeting of The Christian Finance Faculty Association will be held at the Financial Management Association meeting in Reno, Nevada in the Alpine Room of the Nugget Hotel on Friday, October 23, 2009 from 7:00 - 9:00 AM. The theme of this meeting will be exploring intersections between a Christian worldview and

Interview of Jason Zweig on Neuroeconomics -- GuruFocus.com

Interview of Jason Zweig on Neuroeconomics -- GuruFocus.com: "'There was a beautiful study that was published in the The Journal of Finance a couple of years ago about the selection of institutional money managers. It basically found that the professionals who pick money managers, in this case it was pension funds, tend to buy high and fire low. They invest in whichever managers have the best

Billionaire among 6 nabbed in inside trading case - Yahoo! Finance

Billionaire among 6 nabbed in inside trading case - Yahoo! Finance: "Raj Rajaratnam, a portfolio manager for Galleon Group, a hedge fund with up to $7 billion in assets under management, was accused of conspiring with others to use insider information to trade securities in several publicly traded companies, including Google Inc.U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas F. Eaton set bail at $100 million to

A look back to Dow 10000-1999 style

Interesting look at the first time the Dow hit 10,000 back in 1999.Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Guilty As Charged: Chase Mortgage Ad From 2005 Proves Subprime Culpability (JPM)

Check out the 2005 ad they have replicated. Wow. In hindsight looks beyond stupid.Guilty As Charged: Chase Mortgage Ad From 2005 Proves Subprime Culpability (JPM):

Reducing Incentives for Risk-Taking - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

Shareholders are the most important party in the nexus of contracts largely because as residucal claimants they are in the best position to monitor the firm. So it is generally well accepted that managers should manage to maximize shareholder wealth. But to what extent does this mean executives can totally forget about other stakeholders.In the traditional view, if executives do not "take

Stock Whizzes Born Not Made, With Right Dopamine Gene (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

We will definitely be talking about this one when classes start up again on Wedneday!Stock Whizzes Born Not Made, With Right Dopamine Gene (Update1) - Bloomberg.com: "People who excel at making snap decisions and learn quickly from their mistakes, skills tied to successful stock traders, may share a genetic secret, according to a study by German neuroscientists.These talents have been linked in

BBC NEWS | Business | Bloomberg acquires BusinessWeek

BBC NEWS | Business | Bloomberg acquires BusinessWeek: "The financial news and data provider Bloomberg has agreed to buy BusinessWeek magazine."

Dealbook Column - Don’t Fail, or Reward Success - NYTimes.com

First the standard textbook, academic speal: When dealing with pay issues, there are two things to keep in mind: Level of pay and form of pay. The level of pay (how much) is what generally draws criticism and anger (caused in some part by jealousy) and is what "gets people in the door". Form of pay (straight salary, options, etc) is what motivates people. The problem can be that there is

New ways of measuring market risk tolerance - Yahoo! Finance

New ways of measuring market risk tolerance - Yahoo! Finance: "The asset-allocation tools you'll find online or that an adviser will employ when working with you routinely recommend stock allocations of 70% or more if you're younger than 55 or so. Target-date retirement funds that are the default investments in most 401(k) plans similarly have high stock concentrations, as do planner

Bear Stearns trader thought funds could "blow up" - Telegraph

Bear Stearns trader thought funds could "blow up" - Telegraph: "In a series of emails he sent to his personal Google Mail account in diary, Mr Tannin wrote that he was worried one of the funds 'was going to subject investors to 'blow up risk.' 'I was worried that this would all end badly and that I would have to look for work,' the same email continues."

Book Review: 'This Time Is Different' - WSJ.com

Book Review: 'This Time Is Different' - WSJ.com:I am definitely getting this book! This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff.The WSJ reviews it. Here is the most important part:"19th-century British journalist Walter Bagehot claimed that during each speculative upturn merchants and bankers 'fancy the prosperity they see will last always,

A Guided Tour Of The NYC Commercial Real Estate Wreckage

A Guided Tour Of The NYC Commercial Real Estate Wreckage: "Last night's PBS NewsHour took a look at the bearish obsession du jour, the commercial real estate market. Real estate analyst Bob White took them around to show some of the ugliest cases out there"

Video on common investment mistakes

Interesting look at 8 common investment mistakes that uses Big Brown (the horse, not the delivery company). (Overly optimistic, ignoring data, etc)Good for behavioral finance!

Mind - How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect - NYTimes.com

Mind - How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect - NYTimes.com: "Researchers have long known that people cling to their personal biases more tightly when feeling threatened. After thinking about their own inevitable death, they become more patriotic, more religious and less tolerant of outsiders, studies find. When insulted, they profess more loyalty to friends — and when told they’ve done poorly on a

Caltech Scientists Develop Novel Use of Neurotechnology to Solve Classic Social Problem - Caltech

Caltech Scientists Develop Novel Use of Neurotechnology to Solve Classic Social Problem - Caltech: "...providing public goods optimally and fairly is difficult, Rangel notes, because the group leadership doesn't have the necessary information. And when people are asked how much they value a particular public good—with that value measured in terms of how many of their own tax dollars, for instance

Merrill Lynch’s Compensation Plan Is Lesson for Pay Czar - NYTimes.com

Merrill Lynch’s Compensation Plan Is Lesson for Pay Czar - NYTimes.com: "Merrill program, which was supposed to align its top employees’ pay with the company’s long-term performance, did not keep workers from taking risks that nearly sank the brokerage giant. And some of its senior executives still stand to collect millions of dollars in stock under the plan.As the Obama administration’s pay czar

Handicapping the 2009 Economics Nobel - Real Time Economics - WSJ

Handicapping the 2009 Economics Nobel - Real Time Economics - WSJ: "Adherents of the efficient-markets hypothesis might say that University of Chicago Booth School of Business economist Eugene Fama has an excellent chance of winning the Nobel Prize in economics. Then again, recent events have thrown the idea that markets accurately reflect information available to investors — the

Monkey cooperation and fairness

FASCINATING!YouTube - Monkey cooperation and fairness: "A pair of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) show very compelling signs of cooperation and a sense of fairness, by working together to solve a problem using tools, and then sharing the reward."

John Kay - Markets after the age of efficiency

A good article on market efficiency. Remember markets are good, not perfect. FT.com / Columnists / John Kay - Markets after the age of efficiency: "Market efficiency is a hypothesis about the way markets react to information and does not necessarily imply that markets promote economic efficiency in a wider sense. But there is a relationship between the two concepts of efficiency. It has long

2nd UPDATE: Prison Terms Upheld For Adelphia Founder, Son - WSJ.com

2nd UPDATE: Prison Terms Upheld For Adelphia Founder, Son - WSJ.com: "-A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the prison sentences of Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas and his son Timothy after they were convicted in 2004 in a massive accounting scandal at the telecommunications company.In an opinion Monday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied a bid by the Rigases to

Lo thinks FDIC could fail - Pensions & Investments

Lo thinks FDIC could fail - Pensions & Investments: "The FDIC might fail, requiring a federal bailout, dragged down by the failure of regional banks with substantial commercial mortgage debt, Andrew W. Lo warned.Mr. Lo, founder and chief investment strategist of AlphaSimplex Group and a finance professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that a failure to restructure debt on

Nearly 200 stocks could be delisted from NYSE, Nasdaq - USATODAY.com

Nearly 200 stocks could be delisted from NYSE, Nasdaq - USATODAY.com: "There's something other than just shame facing stocks struggling to stay above $1: getting booted from their stock market. After months of suspending requirements that stocks stay above $1, both the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange are cracking down. On Aug. 3 both reinstituted the rule, saying stocks that don't trade above

Private Equity Buy-Outs Are Struggling

Private Equity Buy-Outs Are Struggling: "The New York Times explains how PE firms managed to find profits on deals, even when they badly miscalculated and drove the firm into bankruptcy."

Eugene F. Fama: Economist - Fama/French Forum

Eugene F. Fama: Economist - Fama/French Forum: "In an interview conducted by Professor Richard Roll, famed University of Chicago economist Eugene F. Fama discusses his life, research, and contributions to the field of finance. Produced by Dimensional in conjunction with the American Finance Association. Directed and edited by Gene Fama Jr."Thanks to Mark P for pointing this out to me!

Introducing DealBook Dialogue - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

Be sure to follow this! A roundtable on the impact of the financial crisis. LOOKS VERY INTERESTING!Introducing DealBook Dialogue - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com: "DealBook want to challenge or confirm the emerging consensus about the financial crisis. To bring together 12 top academics, market participants and regulators with Professor Davidoff to write something original that really makes us

The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation » Patterns in Corporate Events

While the market efficiency debate continues (that it is really a degree of market efficiency not an either or discussion is often forgotten), it seems more and more that the independence of investment and financing decisions has been scuttled. From Private equity firms to corporations it seems that there are definite hot cold financing times and that these influence activities from takeovers to

What do marshmallows have to do with self-control? « Nudge blog

What great timing, we just discussed this in class on Wed. What do marshmallows have to do with self-control? « Nudge blog: "Psychology professor Walter Mischel’s 1960s experiment involving children, sugary sweets, and self-control has become a classic. The set-up is simple. A researcher lets a child pick a favorite food from a tray of cookies, marshmallows, candies, pretzels, and other sweets.

Charlie Rose - Paul Volcker, Former Federal Reserve Chairman

Charlie Rose - Paul Volcker, Former Federal Reserve Chairman: "Part I of Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, one of the wisest men on the economy. In part one of this conversation, he sheds light on the global economic crisis, how we got here, where we are, and what is next for us"