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Gold prices notched a record high for a second day in a row Monday — but the global rush for bullion is not about to stop anytime soon. Gold prices are on course to hit fresh highs next year and are expected to remain above $2,000 levels, buoyed by geopolitical uncertainty, a likely weaker U.S. dollar and possible interest rate cuts. Prices of the yellow metal have risen for two consecutive months with the Israel-Palestinian conflict boosting demand for the safe-haven asset, while expectations of interest rate cuts have provided further support. “We believe the main factors buoying gold in...

Geopolitical risks are on the rise in a system with no slack, and that, according to Goldman Sachs commodities research chief, Jeffrey Currie, strengthens his thesis that the case for commodities has rarely been stronger. While many commodities are fundamentally exposed to events in Ukraine, believes oil and gold provide the cleanest hedges for this geopolitical risk. First, there is clear upside skew in oil prices on both a tactical and strategic basis, with any geopolitical risk premia coming in on top of the tightest inventory levels in decades, low spare capacity and a much less elastic shale sector. If...

Inflation is the highest in 40 years. There used to be a lot of discussion about hedging against inflation in the 1970s and 1980s, but discussion subsided as inflation cooled in the US. But now it is roaring back as Fed monetary stimulus continues unabated and The Federal government continues to spends like crazy. So, how do we protect ourselves against inflation caused by Federal government policies (or follicies)? How about cryptocurrencies like Ethereum? Ethereum really started to take off as US inflation took off. Not a perfect fit (or hedge), but on average Ethereum has kept up with inflation....

There is a lot of noise about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum being hedges against inflation. Here is Bitcoin against core PCE prices YoY. Only if inflation is truly transitory and declines. Ethereum as a hedge against inflation? Ethereum started its run-up after Q1’s inflation report. And has experienced extraordinary volatility, not inflation-hedging mojo. If, however, one’s risk scenario is of the Thunderdome variant characterized by the simultaneous collapse of a currency and its payments system, then there is no better hedge than private, digital money. In short, Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s inflation hedging mojo isn’t working. At best, it’s muddy.

If you’ve spent any time driving around America recently, you may have noticed that an awful lot of the country seems to have shriveled up and died. Take a trip on route two in Maine count the boarded-up paper mills and abandoned houses...consider the empty factories ringed with barbed wire. scenes like this are everywhere. Shuttered car dealerships, next to defunct restaurants, across the street from thrift stores and methadone clinics. Community after community, But one of the big factors in this slow-moving disaster is the utter transformation of the way our leaders think about the American economy. During the...

https://youtu.be/NvEWez59fbI This interview occurred yesterday on their Halftime Report. I am an Investment Adviser and the last half of this video is MUST WATCHING, as he takes to task the smug CNBC interviewer Scott Wapner. You can here him discuss how the hedge funds DID IT AGAIN with overleverage. And it looks like this afternoon, the late sell off was a blown up hedge fund ordered to liquidate.

Folks, we are at a cross roads...there are no Hannity, Rush, or Beck bombshells to help PDJT. The Fed does its thing tomorrow, and I am not hopeful of Powell backing off a rate hike. The market is being pushed down by hedge fund managers (not little ones, BIG billionaire ones), Steyer, Soros, Buffet (yes, him, too), the Fed, etc. They will raise rates and we'll be tanking for more days on end, and, some Freepers will say it's just over-valued and continue to pretend. Does anyone think the market isn't being tanked to prepare for 2020? Let's say Justice...

If, in late 2018, you are contemplating going into quantitative finance, then keep contemplating. Panelists at the recent Quant Conference in London say you’re unquestionably on the right track. “It's super-exciting to be a quant in 2018-2019,” said one panelist (a hedge fund researcher who formerly worked for a large U.S. bank). “Everyone is hiring.” Quants’ enthusiasm for being quants might be dismissed as self-love. Except, they're not the only ones in the zone. Goldman Sachs has proclaimed its pursuit of strats (its own personal brand of quant technologists), while at another conference the week before, the head of recruitment...

Red Wave: All last month political guru Nate Silver predicted that Democrats had an 80-85 percent chance of retaking the House at least, but now that the midterm elections are just a day away, he seems to be hedging his bet. “This last set of Upshot/Siena polls has been pretty good for D’s. They’re polling in 11 districts now, and on average, the polls are coming in about 2-3 points better for Dems than the 538 Classic forecast from before the poll was entered,” the editor of FiveThirtyEight.com tweeted on Saturday.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.), known as one of the most outspoken members of Congress, met with a congressional ethics investigator Wednesday and would not discuss the meeting when questioned by Politico. Grayson has come under fire in recent months by the media and watchdog groups for operating hedge funds bearing his name, actions that are prohibited by sitting members of Congress. Additionally, on the same day the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed an ethics complaint against Grayson, he made a $15,000 payment to a law firm using funds from his campaign, which he also refuses to...

The Wall Street Journal has a revealing report on the hedge fund Eaglevale Partners LP, which is run by Hillary Clinton's son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky. The fund, it turns out, bet big on a turnaround in the Greece economy -- and lost. "Eaglevale Partners LP, founded by Marc Mezvinsky and two former colleagues from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., told investors in a letter sent last week they had been 'incorrect' on Greece, helping produce losses for the firm’s main fund during two of the past three years, according to the letter. Mr. Mezvinsky married Chelsea Clinton, the former first daughter, in...

The hedge fund founded and, until recently, run by billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer was involved in a deal to sell a stake in a Russian oil company to a Russian oligarch who is the target of U.S. sanctions. Farallon Capital Management sold a part of its stake in Russian firm Geotech Oil Services to the Volga Group, a Luxembourg-based investment firm owned by Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko, in 2010. Four years later, in April 2014, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it would target Timchenko, Volga, and a number of companies associated with them, in a round of sanctions aimed...

Last December, I wrote that Fortress Investment Group was preparing to launch a fund that would buy and hold Bitcoin. I also wrote that while details were scarce," there was "some relationship to a new Bitcoin-related fund raised by Pantera Capital, a San Francisco-based hedge fund whose clients are known to include several Fortress executives." Here is what I now know: Fortress has invested directly in Pantera Bitcoin Partners, the limited liability company overseeing Pantera's Bitcoin fund. Moreover, all future purchases of Bitcoin or other crytpocurrencies by Fortress and its principals will be made via Pantera. In other words, there...

Multimillionaire philanthropist Robert W. Wilson, 86, took his own life Monday by throwing himself from his luxury Upper West Side high-rise apartment, just a few months after suffering a debilitating stroke, sources said. The former Wall Street hedge fund titan — who donated hundreds of millions to charity — left a note before leaping at about 11 a.m. from the 16th floor of the famed San Remo, which overlooks Central Park West, cops said. “He was 86 and suffered a stroke a few months ago,” said Wilson’s friend, Stephen Viscusi. “He always said he didn’t want to suffer, and when...

Prof. Alan Dershowitz, appearing at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York this week, spoke about his plan to restart the peace talks. Dershowitz, who has not official position in Israel, spoke to PA President Mahmoud Abbas and suggested a version of the Allon Plan of 1970. His suggestion for a "tripartite settlement freeze" was panned by Israel's Minister of International Affairs, Yuval Steinitz, as well as by former National Security Advisor to PM Netanyahu, Dr. Uzi Arad, who opposed "ulilateral concessions." AFSI's newly elected Chairman, Attorney Mark Langfan, sent an open letter to Prof. Dershowitz for posting in the...

Jon Corzine Might Launch His Own Hedge FundHe is unlikely to face criminal charges over the failure of MF Global By Christopher Freeburn, InvestorPlace Writer Aug 17, 2012, 9:28 am EDT With reports circulating that federal regulators will not seek criminal charges in the collapse of brokerage MF Global, the firm’s former head, Jon Corzine is considering a new career option. The one-time Governor of New Jersey and former head of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), is mulling the idea of starting his own hedge fund, according to the New York Times. **SNIP** However, sources close to the former...

The FBI in New York has opened an inquiry into JP Morgan Chase's $2 billion loss, NBC 4 New York has learned. People familiar with the matter tell NBC 4 New York that the inquiry is not a criminal investigation. The FBI is taking a preliminary look at the incident. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon disclosed last week that the bank had lost the $2 billion by making a bad bet with so-called credit derivatives. Investors lopped off nearly 10 percent from JPMorgan's stock price the next day, and 3 percent more on Monday. Since Dimon made the announcement, nearly...

JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon has shocked Wall Street by disclosing the bank racked up $2bn (£1.2bn) of trading losses in the past six weeks and warned they could get worse. “It puts egg on our face and we deserve any criticism we get,” Mr Dimon told analysts in a hastily arranged call after stock markets closed in New York on Thursday night. America’s second-biggest bank said that the losses stemmed from a series of complex trades that were designed to hedge the bank's overall risk. Some of the losses have been offet by gains of about $1bn from...

When news broke of a 2 billion dollar trading loss by JP Morgan, much of the financial world was absolutely stunned. But the truth is that this is just the beginning. This is just a very small preview of what is going to happen when we see the collapse of the worldwide derivatives market. When most Americans think of Wall Street, they think of a bunch of stuffy bankers trading stocks and bonds. But over the past couple of decades it has evolved into much more than that. Today, Wall Street is the biggest casino in the entire world....

Regulators have a July deadline to finish the rule, but officials have said it appears unlikely they will meet it. The October draft rule issued by the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators permits what is known as "portfolio hedging," or buying and selling in order to reduce the risk of a portfolio of securities held at the bank. Messrs. Merkley and Levin say regulators inserted a "loophole" into the rule's draft. The Dodd-Frank law says banks can conduct hedging activities related to "individual or aggregated positions." It is unclear whether that includes buying or selling to...