Skip to main content

Features of the week

The financials seem to be the prevailing theme in this Friday's, "Features of the week". But Lehman, BKX, and Ambac aren't the only items we have in store for you; there's lots more to see and hear.

Read on!

1. Lehman Brothers may raise $5 billion in capital in an effort to de-lever the balance sheet. The bank had been seen as a sale target earlier in the week.

For more, see: "Making sense of David Einhorn vs. Lehman Brothers", and, Jim Cramer's Blogging Stocks piece, "Einhorn gutted Lehman, and that's OK".

2. US unemployment rises at fastest rate since 1986.

3. Morgan Stanley, Merrill, Lehman ratings cut by S&P.

4. Some were taking this week's breakdown in the bank index (BKX) as an ominous sign; will there be an upcoming bounce for the banking sector?

5. MBIA and Ambac lose their S&P AAA ratings, affecting over $1 trillion in debt securities guaranteed by the companies.

6. IEA says world needs $45,000bn energy revolution.

7. It's not so easy being less rich - (New York Times).

8. Jim Rogers talks to Bloomberg about commodities, oil, and financials.

9. Ben Bernanke: Soaking them at Harvard.

10. Market wisdom from Bernard Baruch.

11. Stephen Schwarzman joins FT "View from the Top" to discuss the credit crunch, Lehman Brothers, Blackstone's IPO, and deleveraging in the banking sector.

12. "Dr. J", Julius Erving talks to Bloomberg about life after sports and says the Celtics vs. Lakers final is a "dream matchup".

Thank you for visiting Finance Trends Matter. If you enjoyed this post, please pass the link on to a friend!

Enjoy your weekend.

Popular posts from this blog

Seth Klarman: Margin of Safety (pdf)

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety .  My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes .    Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes     2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4.

Slate profiles Victor Niederhoffer

Slate's recent profile of writer/speculator, Vic Niederhoffer has been getting some attention from traders and finance types in recent days. I thought we'd take a look at it here too, to offer up some possible educational value from Vic's experiences with trading and loss. Here's an excerpt from Slate's profile of Victor Niederhoffer : " I've enjoyed getting your e-mails. It sounds like you've thought a lot about being wrong. Well, the reason you contacted me, to call a spade a spade, is that I'm sort of infamous for having made a big, notorious, terrible error not once but twice in my market career. Let's talk about those errors. The first was your investment in the Thai baht, which pretty much wiped you out when the Thai stock market crashed in 1997. I made so many errors there it's pathetic. I made one of my favorite errors: "The mouse with one hole is quickly cornered." That is key. There are certain decisions you make in li

William O'Neil Interview: How to Buy Winning Stocks

Investor's B usiness Daily founder and veteran stock trader, William O'Neil share d his trading methods and insights on buying winning stocks in an in-depth IBD radio interview. Here are some highlights from William O'Neil's interview with IBD: William O'Neil's interest in the stock market began when he started working as a young adult.  "I say many times that I didn't get that much out of college. I didn't have much interest in the stock market until I graduated from college. When I got married, I had to look out into the future and get more serious. The investment world had some appeal and that's when I started studying it. I became a stock broker after I got out of the Air Force."    He moved to Los Angeles and started work in a stock broker's office with twenty other guys. When their phone leads from ads didn't pan out, O'Neil would take the leads and drive down to visit the prospective customers in person.