I have reported in the past on the value of the Friday-Monday effect, whereby the bulk of the year’s performance can be had through buying the Friday close in the stock market and then selling the Monday close. Well, I have discovered a further distillation of this phenomenon. During 2010, the S&P 500 rose by [...]

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader is taking a break for the next few days to take Turkey with the expanded family. A 28 pound bird made the ultimate sacrifice, and will be accompanied with mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, potato salad, mince pie, and a fine Yamhill Chardonnay. I ate an entire pumpkin pie last night [...]

Now it’s time for some cultural edification. I first became aware of “Margin Call” as a pre-production project two years ago when news leaked out that the principal actors, Kevin Stacey, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, and Jeremy Irons, were reading the Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader to learn about the industry and get [...]

How unpopular is Congress? Freshman senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, who recently compiled the results of a popularity public opinion poll showing how far in the dumps the Congressional reputation has fallen. Only Fidel Castro is more despised than our august representatives on capital hill. 40% IRS 16% BP during the Gulf oil spill 15% [...]