WOW!, Those margin calls.

[Cassandra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/business/14margin.html


"For hedge funds, the process can occur on a much larger scale.

One firm’s senior wealth management executive said it was seeing people with $30 million in their brokerage account being completely wiped out within days. Weekly margin call lists have started swelling, this executive added.

Wall Street bankers have been particularly hard hit. Many were given large amounts of their company’s stock in annual bonuses, only to see it disappear. Making matters worse, the wealth management executive said, many of those bankers borrowed against those shares to buy stocks of other financial companies that they thought might rebound more quickly. Those shares have since plummeted."

I'm trying to imagine some guy worth $15 million explaining to his wife why he had to leverage all of it because that wasn't enough. And then lost it all and maybe more. Big OUCH.

[whistle]

1. The slime mold and shysters are consuming their own

[orwell]

2. These are the "risk management" geniuses...

...They make the big bucks because they are the "best and the brightest".

Anyone who got wiped out by a 40% drop in the stock averages shouldn't be managing money. Period.

[Ah Xoc Kin]

3. should I feel sorry for these people?

I do feel bad for them, but I feel
worse for middle class people who would
love to HAVE the money to lose in the market