“Margin Call”, the movie is coming in October! Popcorn anyone?
Just when you thought it passe, another movie about Wall Street is coming your way in October — “Margin Call” staring Keven Stacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore and others too numerous to...
View ArticleBond Traders Left Adrift as Dealers Reduce Risk: Credit Markets
Volatility in the markets certainly contributes to the pullback in trading of corporate bond and other “story paper”. We wonder if the changes in the tri-party market, preparation for the use of...
View ArticleHow was MF Global able to leverage themselves so much? The answer lies in the...
One wonders exactly how MF Global was able to leverage themselves so much. Their June financials showed $44.4 billion of assets vs. $1.4 billion of equity, a ratio of just over 30 times. Actually, it...
View ArticleFT Alphaville: One man’s haircut is another man’s unsecured risk
In a November 25, 2011 post in FT Alphaville, Izabella Kaminska points out that there is a flip-side to the collateral conundrum: excessive over-collateralization. The post notes that according to...
View ArticleNow everyone is a repo trader
As our first post of the year, it is appropriate to come back to one of our common threads: collateral. The WSJ article from Dec. 29, 2011 “Europe’s Banks Face Pressure on Collateral” by David Enrich...
View ArticleAnd now Forbes piles on Re-Hypothecation
Here we go again. A December 30, 2011 article in Forbes by Robert Lenzner “The $18 Trillion Threat Of The Unregulated Shadow Banking System” savages re-hypothecation. Lenzner writes, “…Does this sound...
View ArticleFrom the ERC a new paper, “Haircuts and initial margins in the repo market”
The European Repo Council, part of ICMA, came out with an interesting paper today, “Haircuts and initial margins in the repo market”. It was authored by Richard Comotto, Senior Visiting Fellow at the...
View ArticlePrime brokers vs. custodians as Basel III raises costs for leverage
A recent Financial Times article discussed the ongoing negotiations between prime brokers and hedge funds over financing and trading costs. These negotiations have been brought on by Basel III...
View ArticleFinadium: hedge funds on leverage, repo and prime custody
Finadium has released a new research report, “Hedge Funds on Leverage, Repo and Prime Custody: A Finadium Survey.” The report aims to identify how hedge funds are evolving in their thinking about...
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