Model accuracy in different markets from Paul's latest blog entry.
The dynamic relationship between just two equities can be beautifully complex, and certainly never to be captured by a single number, correlation.
There goes your reason why the CDO business is in deep trouble now...
It must be quite a long time since my last attempt to read some scrambled text. Yet here I am, trying to make sense of a SWIFT message, one of the standard wire formats for Wall Street's backoffices:
{1: F01BANKBEBB2222123456} {2: I100BANKDEFFXXXXU3003}...Trust me, you don't want to read the official SWIFT Handbook unless you are having sleeping problems. Luckily, I have found a one-page introduction to SWIFT format in an odd place --- IBM WebSphere documentation.
Just close your eyes and keep your mind wide open.
---- Leslie Burke, Bridge to Terabithia
Thanks to the very deceiving trailers, I thought Bridge to Terabithia was just another average fantasy movie at the time and skipped it. It couldn't have been further from the truth.
I was totally unprepared for the sad ending when I finally watched it yesterday. In every possible way, I liked Leslie and her mildly crazy personality (even for a fifth grader). And that's why the final tragedy was a bit shocking and, kind of depressing.
But then, I guess that's what a truly moving film should make people feel...
With Warren Buffett getting into Muni Bond Insurer business, it's time to get a lesson on how municipal bond insurance works.
Went to see the new National Treasure today. The movie wasn't very interesting but a short animation film before it was brilliantly funny. "How To Hook Up Your Home Theater" by Walt Disney Pictures.
You need to have the experience to setup a home theater to really feel the irony. I especially liked the surround-sourround speakers (and the subwoofer came with it, of course) and the super universal remote. You should go watch it, trust me, this animation itself is worth the movie ticket.
Bloomberg news here.
Merrill has become the latest to join the league, turning to Singapore for capital infusion.
Morgan Stanley reported a steeper- than-forecast loss after $9.4 billion of writedowns on mortgage- related holdings and received a $5 billion cash infusion from state-controlled China Investment Corp.
A rather special phenomena in the current credit crisis is that the troubled institutions are turning to the reserve-rich developing governments for capital infusion. Notably China (Bear and now Morgan), Singapore (UBS) and Abu Dhabi (Citi). While the more traditional "white-knights" such as Warren Buffett have not shown up in the headlines much.
This could mark a sea-change in the emerging market investing paradigm: instead of being driven into the boom-bust cycle by FDI, now these EM economies are in the driver's seat investing their own capital elsewhere. Can they pass the road test? Guess we have to wait and see...
