Welcome To Day-Traders Anonymous (French Bank Edition)


At Bronte we talk a lot about French banks. But we have not owned any of the majors since Greece started looking shaky. We used to own Credit Agricole SA - indeed when we started Bronte it was one of our largest positions. But their exposure to Emporiki (the number 5 bank in Greece) scared me. Indeed I blogged about it once.

We have an estimate of their largest possible loss at Emporiki - and it is probably a good estimate - but hey - this is a crisis and its pretty hard to trade that estimate. The main issues are found on page 70 of 236 of their results presentation (that is where customer assets, customer liabilities and other funding needs are presented). Whether the loss in Greece is 4 billion or 12 billion Euro hardly counts...

Anyway I just bit the bullet and purchased a position in Credit Agricole. My business partner didn't like it - indeed he argued strongly against it.

So we sold.

We made a profit - after commissions - of 412 Euro on the only day trade Bronte has ever done.

My name is John and I am a day trader.

Kind of makes you feel dirty...

John

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/sLB-aOYcVOY/welcome-to-day-traders-anonymous-french-bank-edition-2011-9

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Here's What Digg's Kevin Rose Has Been Up To


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Kevin Rose founded Digg and, despite a $5 million funding round this summer, the social reading site hasn't been doing so well.

Rose has been putting his efforts into a new startup, Milk. The first product Milk is launching is called Oink

It tells people what they'll find in venues, and gives them an easy way to review products.

"When we raised the $1.5 million for Milk, we told investors we were going to try a couple of big ideas. Some might work, some might not.  We're launching Oink in the next few months," says Rose.

"Things like Foursquare and Yelp are good at getting you to a doorstop of a place. But it's hard to find what's good there.  Oink makes it really easy to rate/rank real things and, based on the items you review, we'll recommend places with products for you to try."

He says Oink isn't like Yelp because it doesn't care about the venues. All it cares about are the items inside the venues.

Oink sounds like Consmr, a product review app for grocery store and pharmacy items.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/yqe36H4YqMU/heres-what-diggs-kevin-rose-has-been-up-to-2011-9

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Serious Facts On Freelance Paralegal

When you’re pondering a better career as a paralegal, there are several options which you can consider. You could decide that being a freelance paralegal is the way in which you would like to pursue this field. You can begin by weighing the pros and cons of this exciting new way of working in the [...]

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2011/09/11/serious-facts-on-freelance-paralegal/

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Can GameStop Win Gamers Over With an Android Tablet?

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There's a new kid on the Google (Nasdaq: GOOG  ) Android block, and it's none other than video-game retailer GameStop (NYSE: GME  ) ! Hints were dropped earlier this year amidst a couple of not-at-all-related-to-physical-retail acquisitions.

GameStop is taking a novel approach to the tablet game. Rather than come up with new hardware in an already saturated market, the company has chosen an existing unnamed model that will be a "GameStop certified gaming platform," according to GameStop President Tony Bartel in an interview with GamesIndustry.

It will launch with a number of games pre-installed and bear the company's own branding. The company is currently in the testing phase, and the hardware will also come with a custom-designed dedicated controller, since it believes the full gaming potential of tablets can only be unlocked with a controller.

The ultimate goal will be to eventually stream console games directly to the device and embrace cloud gaming, similar to startup OnLive. Bartel also dropped some hints that the company may be working directly with developers to create games meant to utilize its specific controller and to be streamed directly to the tablet.

The retailer will sell the tablet alongside existing gaming hardware from the Big Three: Sony's (NYSE: SNE  ) PlayStation 3, Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT  ) Xbox 360, and Nintendo's (OTC BB: NTDOY.PK) Wii. This comes just shortly after also getting into the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) iOS hardware market, acknowledging that platform's gaming capabilities.

Barnes & Noble's (NYSE: BKS  ) Nook has done better than expected, which could signal to other brick-and-mortar retailers that the tablet water's warm. With U.S. retail sales of video-game systems and software dropping 26% according to recent figures from NPD Group, this move to the clouds is a step in the right direction. GameStop's sales haven't been hurt as badly, declining by roughly only 3% last quarter from the previous year.

Cloud gaming is a young frontier. Bartel still thinks it's a little too early for the best gaming experience, but the move acknowledges that the potential is there. It's a fresh take on jumping into mobile. If the company can garner support from developers and provide a catalog of exclusive content tailored to its "certified" hardware and custom controller, it may have a shot at winning cloud gamers over.

Ultimately, any shot at the tablet market that doesn't include an Apple logo is bound to be slim. If nothing else, you have to at least give the company some credit for having a unique strategy.

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Source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/09/13/can-gamestop-win-gamers-over-with-an-android-table.aspx

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THEORY: Merkel Will Press Obama And The Fed To Help Bail Out The Eurozone


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We're at the end of "extend and pretend." The crisis of the Eurozone is now acute. The headlines are specific. The best analysis suggests that only extraordinary action can keep it afloat. And even that would work only to delay the inevitable for a month or two more. 

The reality is that the Eurozone no longer offers any good option for continued unity. As an Italian policy-maker told Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, "it would be better to leave (the eurozone) than endure 30 years of pain."

At the center of the storm sits German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is being told by one and all that she must take extraordinary action to save the day.  But the truth is she doesn't have the authority to do so, doesn't have the votes, doesn't have the political throw-weight to over-ride the judicial, legislative and political vetoes. She won't save the day because she can't.

So what does she do? 

In the days leading up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, then French Finance Minister (now IMF Managing Director) Chistine Lagarde told then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson that he could not allow Lehman to fail. The ramifications would be catastrophic, she said.  She was mostly right.

Three years later, it will be Angela Merkel talking to President Obama,Treasury Secretary Geithner and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke with exactly the same message.  The United States government and the Federal Reserve must come to the rescue of the Eurozone or the ramifications will be catastrophic. And she will say that she needs roughly $1 trillion in financial guarantees and liquidity support.  That's the number that will calm the markets.

She will do this publicly (it will be leaked to the FT or the NYT) because (a) she wants to maximize the pressure on the US to ride to the rescue and (b) she wants the blame to fall elsewhere in the event that the "situation" goes haywire.

And there will follow perhaps the defining moment of the Obama Presidency.  If Obama goes forward and provides all or part of the $1 trillion guarantee, he will likely cut his own political throat in so doing.  If Obama declines to go forward and provide all or part of the $1 trillion guarantee, he will likely preside over the second massively destabilizing financial panic in four years, thus insuring a second Great Recession, thus cutting his own political throat.

Sometimes, the choice a president has to make is between really, really bad and truly awful. That's the choice that Angela Merkel will likely drop on President Obama's desk within the next month, and probably sooner rather than later.

 

 

 

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/xUsCvWhfi1Q/merkel-will-press-obama-and-the-fed-to-bail-out-the-eurozone-2011-9

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AC Milan Scored A Breakaway Goal Just 23 Seconds Into Their Game Against Barcelona Today