Tag: Wall Street

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Spoofing trial to shine light on secret world of high-frequency trading

Golden Globes Nominations

Kim Janssen Chicago Tribune

In less time than it takes you to read this sentence, Michael Coscia could make more money than most Americans earn in an 8-hour day.

If you blinked, you miss it.

But if you slowed down time, sliced a second into a thousand tiny parts, and looked at a span of just 65 milliseconds — about as long as it takes a hummingbird to flap its wings once — you’d see the unmistakable evidence of a sophisticated criminal at work, the feds say.

That’s because Coscia, 53, was allegedly a “spoofer,” a high-frequency trader who used computer algorithms to rip off rivals in markets where business is conducted at the speed of light.

His scam using huge spoof orders for commodities futures contracts to goose prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange netted him $1.6 million in just three months, according to a federal indictment, helping fund an anonymous but comfortable lifestyle that included a waterfront New Jersey mansion.

Coscia, of Rumson, N.J., is due to find himself thrust into the public eye Monday when he becomes the first criminal defendant tried under anti-spoofing legislation included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-spoofing-trader-trial-1025-biz-20151023-story.html

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Fears grow over US stock market bubble

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John Authers

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A growing number of investors believe that US stocks are overvalued, creating the risk of a significant bear market, according to research by Yale University market scholar Robert Shiller.

The Nobel economics laureate told the Financial Times that his valuation confidence indices, based on investor surveys, showed greater fear that the market was overvalued than at any time since the peak of the dotcom bubble in 2000.

“It looks to me a bit like a bubble again with essentially a tripling of stock prices since 2009 in just six years and at the same time people losing confidence in the valuation of the market,” he said.

However, he made clear that it remained impossible to time any fall in the market, and cast doubt on whether stocks would drop should the Federal Reserve raise rates later this week.

https://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/85d0becc-58c5-11e5-a28b-50226830d644.html#axzz3ljsXS2jM

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Market Sell off Wall Street like deer in the headlights

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“Black Monday” Brings Global Market Rout, Investors Mourn The Death Of Central Bank Omnipotence

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/24/2015 16:07 -0400

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-24/black-monday-brings-global-market-rout-investors-mourn-death-central-bank-omnipotenc

Peter Schiff Warns “The Fed Is Spooking The Markets, Not China”

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/24/2015 – 16:35

The correction may soon morph into a full-fledged bear market if the Fed makes good on its supposed intentions to raise interest rates this year. Have no illusions, while most market observers are quick to blame the sell-off on China, this market was given life by the Fed, and the Fed is the only force that will keep it alive. Unfortunately for the Fed, it won’t be able to get away with doing nothing for too much longer. Events may soon force it to show its hand. Then perhaps some may notice that the Fed is holding absolutely nothing and has been bluffing the entire time.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-24/fed-spooking-markets-not-china

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Liquidity drought could spark market bloodbath, warns IIF

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Evaporating liquidity and higher US interest rates will cause huge market swings with potentially catastrophic consequences, Institute of International Finance warns

By Szu Ping Chan

6:41PM BST 04 May 2015

Investors face a “painful” adjustment in a world of evaporating liquidity and higher US interest rates that will trigger huge market swings with potentially catastrophic consequences, the Institute of International Finance has warned.

Timothy Adams, the chief executive of the IIF, which represents the world’s biggest banks, described liquidity as the “top issue” at high level meetings of central bankers, chief executives and other financial institutions.

He warned that the raft of regulation introduced in the wake of the 2008 crisis could potentially cause market gyrations larger than last October’s “flash crash” in US Treasuries.

While Mr Adams supports tougher rules that have made the banks more resilient, he said a complex web of regulatory reform may have left banks less able to respond to the next crisis.

“There’s just less capacity for making markets,” he said. “Officials will say: we expect some volatility and this was part of this broader scheme of regulatory reform. But for the private sector there is this issue of: is the total effect of all of these various regulatory changes likely to produce outcomes larger than each individual regulatory reform and its consequences?

“The cumulative unintended could end up being much larger than the one-off intended – we just don’t know.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/11581820/Liquidity-drought-could-spark-market-bloodbath-warns-IIF.html

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Reps. Garrett, Maloney Introduce the Restoring Main Street Investor Protection and Confidence Act of 2015

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Congratulations to Nicole Eskow, a student at Bergen County Academies, on being named an Intel Science Talent Search finalist. During a recent visit to my office, Nicole explained her cancer research that earned her this prestigious recognition. Keep up the great work!
May 4, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representatives Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), Chairman of the House Financial Services Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee, and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, today introduced H.R. 1982, the Restoring Main Street Investor Protection and Confidence Act of 2015.

H.R. 1982 would reaffirm and clarify key protections for ordinary investors that were put in place when Congress passed and amended the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA).  In particular, the bill aims to properly shield innocent individual investors who have already been defrauded and financially devastated by Ponzi schemes perpetrated by Bernie Madoff,  Allen Stanford, and others from further “clawbacks” by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) Trustee.

“This bill is about creating confidence in our markets and protecting innocent investors—investors with their life savings on the line—from abuse, and malfeasance,” said Garrett.  “If Americans lose faith in our securities markets, and the government agencies that give them their seal of approval, it could have a devastating impact on our capital markets and our economy.  If enacted, this legislation will bring confidence back to Main Street investors by ensuring fairness for victims, enhancing efficient functioning of U.S. securities markets, and strengthening the oversight and accountability of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).”

“The last thing a defrauded investor needs is an additional shakedown from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation,” said Maloney. “This important legislation would shield mom and pop investors from these so-called clawbacks, and ensure we go after the criminals, not the victims. It’s a pleasure to work with Representative Garrett on this important legislation.”

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Jon Corzine Considers Launching Hedge Fund

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Plan would mark return to finance for embattled former MF Global CEO

By JULIE STEINBERG and ROB COPELAND
April 19, 2015 7:05 p.m. ET
182 COMMENTS

Jon S. Corzine, the embattled former MF Global Holdings Ltd. chief executive and ex-chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has discussed plans to start his own hedge fund in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter.

The fund would start with cash from Mr. Corzine’s personal wealth and a handful of outside investors. Mr. Corzine said he had been speaking with about a half-dozen potential investors, and projected around $150 million in assets under management, one of the people said.

The plans are tentative and could evolve or fall apart in coming months. But a launch would mark an unlikely return to high finance for Mr. Corzine, the 68-year-old former Democratic U.S. senator and New Jersey governor who has stayed out of the limelight since commodities brokerage MF Global declared bankruptcy in 2011.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/jon-corzine-considers-launching-hedge-fund-1429484718

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Fed whistleblower quits Wall Street, weighs book

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Fed whistleblower quits Wall Street, weighs book
By Kevin Dugan
March 20, 2015 | 11:53am

Carmen Segarra, the Wall Street whistleblower who secretly recorded 46 hours of private conversations with her fellow regulators — casting a light on the sometimes too cozy relationship between the New York Fed and the banks it oversees — is considering writing a book, The Post has learned.

Segarra, a lawyer, left her job at Barclays in New York earlier this month after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, in a March 3 speech, appeared to refer to Segarra’s rocky relationship with her then-Fed colleagues.

“It is important that anyone serving the Fed feel safe speaking up when they have concerns,“ Yellen said in her speech in New York City before the Citizens Budget Commission.

“It’s been an ongoing drain [for Segarra],” a person familiar with Segarra told The Post, talking about the publicity following her going public with her New York Fed issues.

Segarra does not yet have a book deal or even an agent, according to one person familiar with her plans.

Segarra’s 2011-2012 tapes were made public in September when WBEZ’s “This American Life” aired a report on regulators at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shrinking before bankers at Goldman Sachs over a “legal, but shady” deal.

https://nypost.com/2015/03/20/fed-whistleblower-quits-wall-street-weighs-book/

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Readers Comment on Job flight out of New Jersey and killing the golden goose

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Readers Comment on Job flight out of New Jersey and killing the golden goose 

https://theridgewoodblog.net/lure-of-the-south-takes-a-toll-on-corporate-nj-new-demographics-globalization-play-roles/

Wait, What?

You mean the plan to “tax the rich” to fund the NJ economy and redistribute the wealth didn’t work?

How can that be?
It was such a good, well thought out, logical plan

Oh well, let’s try the same plan again – it will surely work next time.

Some time around the very birth of this blog , I sat in a local kitchen and across from me sat among other people Tom Keen Jr who at the time was considering a run for Governor.

I carefully laid out my concerns about what would happen to the North Jersey economy  ,specifically Bergen County if the “Wall Street ” job engine would slow down or stop .
I explained all those Wall Street salaries went to went to pay the very high taxes, rents and utilities  as well as the effect of the enormous disposable income that was spent in shopping malls etc..

Tom looked across the table at me and said , “We are working on banning smoking in bars and restaurants”  and I knew then that our representatives in Trenton have absolutely no clue what so ever as to what they are doing or even the most rudimentary understanding of economics .

Years later a certain leader of the “turf field”proponents,lets just call him Captain Jack used to say OFTEN that ,” if you can’t afford the high taxes you do not belong here ”  and he would go on to claim that the high taxes actually caused the increase in property values. Funny how he left town be for the bill came do for the turf field he supported .

And that my friends is how the golden goose was killed with little fan fare and thus the mess we now find our selves in .

Reader says , “What will really hit the New York metro area is the rapid advancements in technology and communications, which will make it gradually unnecessary to have have “Wall St” and all it’s associated industries in law, accounting, etc., physically located in NY/NJ. This is a massive driver in terms of real estate, employment, and tax revenues for the tri-state area. The basic laws of supply and demand will eventually see this industry scatter. You might think your lifestyle and job is totally unconnected to Wall St, but you would be wrong.”

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Tapes showing meek oversight of Goldman are about to rock Wall Street

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Tapes showing meek oversight of Goldman are about to rock Wall Street

Major Obama Supporter Gets Free Pass?

Wall Street is about to be rocked by secretly recorded audio tapes that purport to show a too-cozy relationship between the New York Federal Reserve Bank and the financial institutions it is supposed to regulate.

The 45 hours of tapes, made by Carmen Segarra, a former NY Fed worker, capture former co-workers, whose job was to keep banks like Goldman Sachs in line, instead deferring to the banks, being unwilling to take action and being extremely passive, according to public radio’s “This American Life,” and ProPublica which obtained the tapes and is scheduled to air a program about the matter Friday night.

Segarra, ironically, was hired by the NY Fed in October 2011 to help toughen up their oversight. She was fired in 2013 after, she claims in a lawsuit, she tried to get Goldman to toe the line on regulations.

The NY Fed has regulators embedded at each of the large banks it oversees. On her first day on the job, Segarra was assigned to Goldman.

https://nypost.com/2014/09/26/tapes-showing-meek-oversight-of-goldman-are-about-to-rock-wall-street/