Online Stock Trading Software

Fool’s Gold – Stock Trading – Options Trading

Gillian Tett’s new book, “Fool’s Gold”, is a refreshing and innovative approach to the failings of financial institutions, in that she convincingly ties such failings to the personalities and tribal behavioral patterns of the bankers and economists who putatively cause them. As a trained anthropologist, Tett is well qualified to examine tribal behavior, and her research demonstrates quite clearly that it is alive and well at the corporate level. In her view, the current global credit crisis was unleashed by a relatively small tribe of bankers at J.P.Morgan, a wholesaler of financial services and a significant part of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) which is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.1 trillion.

Tett initiates her hypothesis with an account of how a group of young J.P.Morgan traders conduct themselves at an offsite meeting in Florida in 1994. The reader can imagine that her observations of tribal behavioral patterns in developing countries have a bearing on her description of the immature behavior of this group. After a suitable period of horseplay and heavy drinking, the band of bright young bankers applied themselves to the task at hand. The objective was to find ways of unleashing ‘a new wave of innovation in derivatives’.

Sign up now for PowerOptions 14-day free trial

According to Tett’s account, it was the dubious creativity of that meeting that eventually led to the current financial meltdown and worldwide recession. Risk management was at the centre of the group’s discussion. Banks needed a way to control the risk on their balance sheets, and the challenge was to create a product that could effectively do that by being suitably packaged and then sold to others. The new product deriving from the group’s collective input was called a ‘credit derivative’.

See what the stock option experts are doing
Sign up now for PowerOptionsApplied 30-day risk free trial

Essentially, credit derivatives allowed banks to place bets on whether or not a loan or bond would fail in the future, and it was indeed an innovative idea. One of the group’s outspoken members, Cambridge alumnus Blythe Masters, enthusiastically opined that credit derivatives would ‘fundamentally change the way banks price, manage, transact, originate and distribute risk’. She assumed that this would be good news for the financial world but, as we are now painfully aware, although her claim proved to be correct, the end results were disastrous.

Free stock option newsletter
» return goal > 2% / month
» works in any market

Tett claims with some authority that credit derivatives themselves could have worked well as a financial instrument, but unprecedented levels of greed and complacency, and a chronic lack of regulation inevitably led to a financial meltdown. Billions of dollars-worth of default risk was constantly changing hands and financial institutions began to operate as if they were immune to default loans. What appeared at first to be minor blips on the balance sheet became huge, destructive holes over time, until it became clear that J.P.Morgan had indeed unleashed a catastrophe.

Want to protect your portfolio/401K from market downside?
yet still benefit from market upside
Sign up now for the free Sketch

Gillian Tett’s book is one of the most enlightening accounts of the current world credit crisis and its fundamental causes, but not only that. Her claim that ‘nothing in society exists in a vacuum or in isolation’ is well illustrated by her comparison of primitive tribal behaviors with the antics of more modern tribes in today’s corporate and financial world. That in itself makes her book an interesting read.

Learn how to profit from winner stocks
and protect yourself from loser stocks
Download free Trade Simulator now

Investors seeking to avoid the calamities of the stock market, as illustrated in the book Fool’s Gold, should consider stock options. Stock options provide a method for investors to purchase portfolio insurance. A put option, for example, is like stock insurance, in the event a stock drops in price, the position is protected by a put option. Investors can combine a protective options trading strategy with a stock option income generating method and generate income while being protected from stock market downside movements. An example of an stock options income generating method is the covered call investing strategy.

Learn to trade like the pros
Signup for free Webinars now

For more information about how to identify and research great option trades, visit the PowerOptions website. There you will find the data you need to make quick, clear, and informed decisions. You can trade knowing you have found the best investment. Also, PowerOptions will allow you, with a few quick clicks, to quickly and accurately compare trades. PowerOptions’ premium customer support is second to none in the industry. They can be easily contacted when you need them at their toll-free number to answer customer questions. Call them now toll free at 877-992-7971.

PowerOptions provides a free 14-day trial of its service. So join PowerOptions today, and you too can start reaping the benefits of the covered call investment strategy.

PowerOptions’ sister company PowerOptionsApplied provides expert stock option trading recommendations. PowerOptionsApplied specializes in covered calls, naked puts and iron condor stock options strategy recommendations. PowerOptionsApplied provides a 30-day risk free trial of its service.

[tags] Gillian Tett, Fool’s Gold, financial, J.P.Morgan, credit derivatives, Cambridge, Blythe Masters, regulation, credit crisis, JPM, J.P. Morgan Chase [/tags]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *