Posted on 03/28/2005 6:12:50 PM PST by shrinkermd
IT seemed like an ordinary evening at Crobar, the trendy Manhattan nightclub. Two weeks ago, as Counting Crows performed on stage, young women dressed in expensive jeans pushed toward the front with their khaki-clad, mostly older boyfriends. Few, however, were regulars. On this night, the very rich and the merely rich intermingled on the club's two floors - V.I.P.'s upstairs ($1,000 a ticket) and the rest down below ($250).
Most of the 1,250 people gathered for the event, the Robin Hood Foundation charity ball, were part of the city's unlikely new "it" crowd. Richer than Wall Street rich and more willing to take risks than their traditional money management peers, they are the managers behind the staggering growth in hedge funds, those private, lightly regulated investment vehicles aimed at the ultrawealthy, the run-of-the-mill wealthy and, increasingly, the not-so wealthy
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"In a way, hedge funds are to mutual funds what Evel Knievel was to weekend motorcyclists. Unlike mutual funds, which are restricted in the ways they can invest, hedge funds can use leverage, trade derivatives and bet that stocks will fall, a technique called shorting. And unlike mutual funds, which generally try to beat a market average, hedge funds seek positive returns, even in down markets.
"THE meteoric rise of hedge funds has had a huge impact on the markets, investment banks and investors, who increasingly include institutions like pension funds or endowments. A recent report published by Credit Suisse First Boston said that hedge funds were responsible for up to half of all activity in major markets, including the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.
COMMENT: More likely than not, hedge funds will be the genesis and complication of the next financial crisis.
The more risk, the more reward - or the more you can win or lose...
The Long Term Capital fiasco in 1998 was a hedge fund that went bust and almost took the world financial system with it.
As a result of the LTCM crises, the federal reserve pumped money into the markets which resulted in the 2000 stock market bubble.
Nick Leason (sp?) redux?
This is what George Soros successfully did the U.K. Pound, and he didn't even use his own money.
If this is what the "ultra rich" suffer through in terms of music, I`d rather live in a sh*t shack and eat fear factor food.
It is all manipulated. What I love is the press releases. A good press release comes out, the stock goes up, then another press release comes out saying the first press release was a mistake. I`ve seen quite a few drug companies do that, or the lovely "analysts" who decide to downgrade a stock right before an earnings release, then you find the earnings were great and the downgrade was complete BS to bring the price down. Or then you get the press people with a vendetta against a stock like the New York Slimes had against Taser. Two days beofre Taser put out their earnings report, the New York Slimes along with Dan Rather decided to put out totally one sided reports saying that Tasers kill people. It was later found out all the people they mentioned who died, were later found to have died from drugs not the Taser. They put out that report solely to manipulate the stock and hurt the stock holders simply because they did`t like the fact that cops had an advantage over criminals by using a Taser.
AG Elliot Spitzer was using alot of the same thinking and arguements when he started going after funds.
I don't know if what he did will be effective in the long term, but he certainly busted their chops pretty good, and came after them like a pit bull and got the reforms he wanted.
Considering the sizable amount of insider information the NY Times has access to, I'd be more willing that they shorted the stock for profit.
Considering the sleazy behavior they have and are exhibiting with Bruce Ratner, its not just the politics of the company that is appalling, its the lack of business ethics that is also disturbing.....and possibley criminal.
Hedge? I prefer shrubbery.
Hedge? I prefer shrubbery.
For the last ten years I have been thinking and saying that the mutual funds I own through Fidelity are just the hedge funds, in a way, for their individual stock accounts, that is, they use the clout of the mutuals to move the stocks in a positive way for select investors. I have since stopped investing in the stock market.
That could have been a factor, but there was a lot more going on than that.
The constant bellyaching from Greenspan about his dislike for the stock market and all the wealth it generated actually encouraged speculative behavior. Why would any one want to invest for slow long term gains when it was apparent that Greenspan was going to take a wrecking ball to the whole thing in the near future?
Back in the late 1980's before the 1987 stock market crash, the big thing was porfolio insurance, and I guess hedge funds are a similar attempt to take the risk out of investing.
"Bring me a shrubbery!"
Yeah so you know what I`m talking about right? I lost my azzzzz on that damn stock. I held it over that weekend, then on a Sunday what should I find but a press release ON A SUNDAY by this pr*ck at the New York Slimes saying Tasers kill, and this was two days before Taser was to report their earnings. Then to top it off, two days later Dan RaTHer puts out another report on cBS news bashing Taser, I wanted to freggin` wring the necks of these idiots. I held that stock for months, and these liberal POS came out of nowhere totally slanting their reports. I got a letter from some lawyer a few months ago asking me if I wanted to participate in a class action suit against Taser, but I`m not doing that. A suit though against the New York Slimes and Dan RaTHer I would be VERY interested in. To me in my opinion it was completely obvious they put out those reports and slanted them solely to hurt the stock right when it reported it`s earnings. But what goes around comes around, Dan RaTHers career is over and my Father cancelled his subscription to the New York Slimes ha ha
I think you could have a case.
Its already well known that alot of folks at the Times, including the ownership, are investors to different extents.
What I would not give to get a look at the SEC filings and see what correlations there are to their stories and reports.
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