“Are you opposed to contracts...? “
“Actually no. I understand them, including the notions of consideration by both parties, collateral, remedies for breach of, and the legality of the terms of said contract. It’s an extremely valuable legal instrument that has benefited the western world for centuries. However they were never meant to be the tool of trade for degenerate gamblers.”
I am livid. Degenerate gamblers? It is the speculator that PREVENTS the shortage of things. Without the speculator the hedger might have no counterparty. Look how shortages happened in the Soviet Union - 20 million people starved to death around 90 years ago due to grain shortages. How many millions starved in North Korea in the past 20 years due to food shortages. In capitalist societies the speculator (and I am a PROUD speculator) bids up the price on things when he thinks there will be a shortage of them. This allows people to make substitutions and begin to ration before it is too late. The price signal allows people to react.
The speculator makes a lot of money and you don’t like it. Are you experiencing envy?
“The notional value of the world’s derivatives actually is estimated at more than $600 trillion. Notional value, of course, is the total value of a leveraged position’s assets. This distinction is necessary because when you’re talking about leveraged assets like options and derivatives, a little bit of money can control a disproportionately large position that may be as much as 5, 10, 30, or, in extreme cases, 100 times greater than investments that could be funded only in cash instruments.
“The world’s gross domestic product (GDP) is only about $65 trillion, or roughly 10.83% of the worldwide value of the global derivatives market, according to The Economist. So there is literally not enough money on the planet to backstop the banks trading these things if they run into trouble.”
- http://moneymorning.com/2011/10/12/derivatives-the-600-trillion-time-bomb-thats-set-to-explode/
And I don’t mean hedged with your awesome wiz-bang trading algorithms. It must be hedged with cash equivalents (T-Bills )for the maximum exposure possible. Yes its very expensive to keep that much cash on hand,but tough luck,its still better then waiting for Tax payer bailout — that’s capitalism.