StockChase

 Great site with Canadian Content and commentary

It's a new year and we have a new look! We've spent an excessive amount of time reworking how our pages are looked up, and we think we've come up with something very easy to use. Finding a company that has been commented on has never been easier, just go to the company index below and click. Or if you really like one of the experts we follow, find out what he's been saying recently. At the bottom of the page here you can see the most recent opinions. Usually the last 3 days worth

Source: StockChase

The rich get richer

Watch out - ETFs and options are going to go crazy after Apr. 2. 

According to Report On Business investment writer Rob Carrick, the margin rules for hedge funds trading with IDA of Canada broker-dealers are going to change on April 2 from 50 pct margin to just 15 pct for instruments like ETF’s, which will likely add to market volatility.

Source: Bill Cara: Cara’s Daytrader Bull Board, Fri., Jan. 26, 2007, 6:54 AM

 

Though it will not be broadly available.

Fimat USA, LLC is the only firm currently offering these new margin levels [on certain products including broad-based indices and corresponding ETFs] to investors. However, the firm reviews customers on a case-by-case basis and requires a minimum account balance of $150,000 as well as Level 5 options approval, which includes approval to trade uncovered index option writing. Other firms will have their own rules and guidelines for allowing portfolio margining. 

http://biz.yahoo.com/opt/070122/opt_16541.html

 

It's 20x leverage?

Here is a new margin rule that I believe could have the same effect on equity markets...SEC APPROVES CBOE'S NEW PORTFOLIO MARGINING RULES TO BENEFIT CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS.

If you don't want to read it, I'll sum it up for you. What is says is that your margin requirement is limited to your absolute risk when you use options. For instance if you buy 100 shares of Google at $500/share-it costs you $50,000 total-or at minimum it takes $25,000 from your account if you use margin (2:1). Currently, if you also buy 1 Google Put that expires this month and has a strike of $480, and it costs $2.00 (per share)-the put will cost you $200 ($2.00 x 100 shares). All together this total position costs $25,000+$200=$25,200 (not counting trade costs). Ok, now check out the new rule (which starts after April 2nd, by the way)-the CBOE says.... really this investor can only lose 20 points on this trade (this put is a right to sell 100 shares at $480/share and the stock is currently trading at $500/share). Therefore this whole trade should only cost the trader $2000 (20 points x 100 shares=$2000.00)+ the additional $200 that the put costs, so all in all $2, 200.00 because that is all the investor can really lose on this trade. This is incredible leverage. This would allow you to buy (in this scenario) $50,000 worth of stock with only $2,200 dollars. This is 20+ times leverage versus the current 2 times leverage. This is similar leverage to what is allowed in the futures markets. There are other implications of this as well for covered calls and spreads, but the real point that I am trying to make here is that there is a significant amount of increased buying power that will be created when this requirement begins. This effectively creates new money. And, new money is usually spent.

 

http://www.themoneyblogs.com/steve/my.blog/this-margin-rule-changes-the-game-.html

SecondLife: Revolutionary Virtual Market or Ponzi Scheme?

New L$ are distributed to customers as they pump real money into the virtual world. Nearly all customers utilize the game’s built-in “buy money” feature, which allows them to charge their credit card or PayPal account “micropayments”. Micropayments are a popular, proven business model first established in the mobile-phone market. All SecondLife does is extend this concept to a virtual reality game world. 

Of course, anyone lingering in the world of SecondLife for more than a passing glance quickly discovers the real engine to the SecondLife economy: sex and gambling. A healthy share of micropayments are pumped into the system as customers engage in pulling the virtual slot lever or patronize one of the myriad virtual sex workers. 

 

SecondLife: Revolutionary Virtual Market or Ponzi Scheme?

The Smith Manoeuvre - is your mortgage tax deductible?

 

Do you have the wrong kind of debt? The kind that is not tax deductible? Most of us do. The wealthy have debt too. The difference is, they routinely turn their loans into "good debt" by making the interest tax deductible, with the help of expensive accountants and lawyers. So while the wealthy are transforming their house mortgage loans into free tax refunds, the rest of us are paying off huge amounts of mortgage interest with after-tax income. Until now. THE SMITH MANOEUVRE has introduced a new, simple, and powerful method that extends those tax-saving benefits to the rest of Canadians. It is now easy for you and your financial planner to start turning your bad debt into good debt, right away.

Source: The Smith Manoeuvre - is your mortgage tax deductible?

Killer Technology

Enhanced Performance
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Translation: Instant-on Windows ('98 at least)

SNDK

James Harris Simons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

James Harris (Jim) Simons, Ph.D. is a cryptanalyst, mathematical physicist, academic, investment advisor, billionaire and philanthropist. In 1982, Simons founded Renaissance Technologies Corporation, a private investment firm based in New York with over $12 billion under management; Simons is still at the helm, as president, of what is now one of the world's most successful hedge funds.^[1] According to Institutional Investor magazine, Simons earned an estimated $1.5 billion in 2005^[2] (the largest compensation among hedge fund managers that year [1]) and $670 million in 2004. Simons' most influential research involved the discovery and application of certain geometric measurements, and resulted in the Chern-Simons form (aka Chern-Simons invariants, or Chern-Simons theory). In 1974, his theory was published in Characteristic Forms and Geometric Invariants, co-authored with the differential geometer Shiing-Shen Chern. The theory has wide use in theoretical physics, particularly string theory. With an estimated current net worth of around $4 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 64th-richest person in America.

Source: James Harris Simons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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