<p>[Year</a> of pain at Fidelity - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/business/markets/articles/2008/10/14/year_of_pain_at_fidelity/]Year”>http://www.boston.com/business/markets/articles/2008/10/14/year_of_pain_at_fidelity/)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/business/14hedge.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/business/14hedge.html</a></p>
<p>[FT.com</a> / Companies / Financial services - Fortress fights to save value of ski resort](<a href=“Fortress fights to save value of ski resort”>Fortress fights to save value of ski resort)</p>
<p>[Bankers</a> take a billhook to the hedge funds - Times Online](<a href=“The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines”>http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article4958967.ece)</p>
<p>"Hedge fund managers are paranoid. And they are right to be. The other day I had lunch with a senior financial official whose view of hedge funds was simple. They were a con. The returns were all due to leverage. And now that the leverage has gone everyone will see they were a con. </p>
<p>You may disagree with this analysis. You may be convinced that for some hedge funds at least the returns were down to skill. You may argue that their role in the credit crisis has been at worst neutral. But you cannot deny it is pretty worrying for hedge funds when this is the view of a top regulator."</p>
<p>While still on the topic of hedge funds, this is a heart-warming story:</p>
<p>[Lahde</a>, who bet versus subprimes, quits hedge funds | Funds | News | Reuters](<a href=“http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUSN1747509520081017]Lahde”>http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUSN1747509520081017)</p>
<p>Here are a few excerpts:</p>
<h2>Andrew Lahde, the hedge fund founder who shot to fame with his small fund that soared 870 percent last year on bets against U.S. subprime home loans, has called it quits, thanking “stupid” traders for making him rich.</h2>
<p>The low-hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking," said Lahde, who according to the website birthdates.com is 37.</p>
<h2>“These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.”</h2>
<p>Priceless.</p>
<p>I like that story.</p>
<p>Truly heartwarming. ;)</p>
<p>(I’m still betting on real estate. One-acre rice paddies, within 10-15 kilometers of Nagapattinam. Oh, and bricks. I have a market for handmade bricks.)</p>
<p>A 76% drop is ridiculous. Carl Icahn…</p>
<p><a href=“404 - Page not found | Domain-b.com”>404 - Page not found | Domain-b.com;
<p>I guess 99% is worse.</p>
<p>These are professionals?</p>
<p>[reportonbusiness.com:</a> Hedge funds suffer massive losses in meltdown](<a href=“http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081018.MKCRUNCHER18/TPStory/Business]reportonbusiness.com:”>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081018.MKCRUNCHER18/TPStory/Business)</p>
<p>"DeltaOne Energy Fund, run by Peter Linder, plunged nearly 99 per cent as of Oct. 10 with nearly two-thirds of the loss coming last month as the price of oil fell sharply. His DeltaOne Strategic Energy is also down 65 per cent.</p>
<p>Dynamic Power Emerging Markets and Dynamic Power Hedge run by Rohit Sehgal have respectively, tumbled 70 and 60 per cent as of Oct. 10. Those funds, which rode the bull markets in developing countries and resources, have been hurt by their collapse."</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/us/21condo.html?em[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/us/21condo.html?em</a></p>
<p>The best tome regarding human folly and greed was written by fella named Charles Mackay way back in 1841. Catchy title too. </p>
<p>[Extraordinary</a> Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds]Extraordinary”>Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Yes Toblin. History keeps repeating itself over and over.</p>
<p>[The</a> incredible shrinking funds | The Economist](<a href=“The incredible shrinking funds”>The incredible shrinking funds)</p>
<p>[MarketBeat</a> : The Bloom Is Off of T. Boone](<a href=“http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2008/10/27/the-bloom-is-off-of-t-boone/]MarketBeat”>http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2008/10/27/the-bloom-is-off-of-t-boone/)</p>
<p>What a bunch of idiots. It would have been funny if it is not so sad.</p>
<p>[“Where</a> the Wild Cats Howl, Part I” by Adrian Ash, FSU Editorial 10/31/2008](<a href=“http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/ash/2008/1031.html]"Where”>http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/ash/2008/1031.html)</p>
<p>excerpt:</p>
<p>“I have hedge fund managers literally in tears on the phone…”
a London broker, quoted this week</p>
<hr>
<p>Monday, 27th Oct., saw an Arctic chill blow freezing winds and even snow down into Western Europe. It also saw luxury car-marque Porsche exercise options to buy almost 40% of VW’s shares.</p>
<p>That not only caught bearish hedge funds napping. It also took Porsche’s holding to a massive 74.1% of all shares in issue. And so with the Germany state of Saxony holding a further twenty per cent (the car maker’s main operations are based there), the VW bears were left scrambling to buy back their shorts.</p>
<p>The pool of stock available outside Porsche and Saxony’s investment, however, is now less than half the size needed. Oh…bother!</p>
<hr>
<p>Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.</p>
<p>Great link Canuckguy. The Financial Sense website has lots of great info and opinion pieces.</p>
<p>Th VW story is pretty amazing.</p>
<p>[Cerberus</a> Capital Management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus_Capital_Management]Cerberus”>Cerberus Capital Management - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Are we going to bailout John Snow? Dan Quayle?</p>
<p>[Cramer</a> calls fed merger help mad | The Detroit News | detnews.com](<a href=“Detroit Local News - Michigan News - Breaking News - detroitnews.com”>Detroit Local News - Michigan News - Breaking News - detroitnews.com)</p>
<p>[The</a> Associated Press: No big sellers in sight to save troubled Chrysler](<a href=“http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZBIu13TViGQ4phTNI2X5JrafVWgD94698L80]The”>http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZBIu13TViGQ4phTNI2X5JrafVWgD94698L80)</p>