thenews / Profile

One more time--the distinction between human- and algo-trading The markets do not act like they once did. The trading in certain stocks is operating on time-scales so small that they cannot be in response to human thought. Not only are certain

With only three of the 2,400 employees in the Bureau of Labor Statistics on duty, we won’t be getting the monthly nonfarm payrolls report Friday. Given the federal government shutdown that furloughed employees deemed nonessential, the manpower is

From algos to trading pschology and from market-maker's tricks to the quant models that dominate, Batur Asmazoglu provides an insider's view of a large sell-side bank FX trading desk. While the likes of Goldman's Thomas Stolper have proved it

If Wall Street's high-frequency trading machines are capable of emotion, then they must be head over heels in love with the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama. High-frequency-trading profits rise with market volatility because the

Billionaire Warren Buffett tossed lifelines to a handful of blue-chip companies during the financial crisis. Five years later the payoff on those deals is becoming clear: $10 billion and counting. Mr. Buffett approached that figure after he collected

The pitch was enticing. At a time when the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index had suffered a decline of 41 percent in the previous three years, Morgan Stanley (MS) was offering its clients the possibility of some relief. In a prospectus, the New York

With the federal government partly shut down and the footsteps of the debt ceiling clomping closer, the search is on for worst-case, last-gasp, what-if-we-have-to-ram-the-asteroid solutions. The latest of these is the “Presidential bond,” a.k.a. the

Three years from now, Federal Reserve forecasters expect the economy will still be struggling to overcome one of the biggest obstacles to growth: U.S. fiscal policy. Most Fed officials last month predicted drag from fiscal restraint, a slow recovery

The smart money doesn't think the U.S. will default on its debt. Despite continued dire warnings from top officials like Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, many hedge funds and other large money managers aren't significantly trimming their portfolios—and

The U.S. Justice Department is making inquiries into allegations of foreign exchange rate manipulation centered on the Swiss franc but has left the heavy lifting to Europe, according to a source familiar with the probe. The Justice Department spoke

As we warned two years ago, "the muddle through has failed... and there may only be painful ways out of this." Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog, Now that "bail-ins" have become accepted practice all over the planet, no bank

All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers In the final months of 2011, almost two years before the city of Detroit would shock America by declaring bankruptcy in the face of what it claimed were insurmountable pension

Financial volatility since Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s announcement in May that the Fed would “taper” its monthly purchases of long-term assets has raised a global cry: “Please, Mr. Bernanke, consider conditions in our (non-US) economies

This morning I received a research note from a private bank I work with occasionally.Buried in the text was a call for lower gold prices, and the analysts listed five reasons why they think gold prices will decline. Here’s what they had to say: 1)

So about that whole drone debate in the USA… It seems the feds decided to simply skip over such a quaint notion and deploy them without telling anyone. Back in December of last year, I highlighted a press release from the Electronic Frontier

The House of Representatives early on Sunday brought the federal government closer to a shutdown as it voted to delay President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law for a year as part of an emergency spending bill. By a mostly partisan vote of

The most important issue facing the US markets and economy is the pending government shutdown. If this expands into a debt default, the implications reach worldwide. As I accurately forecast last week: "Despite a busy economic calendar this week will

After the Fed declined to reduce the pace of its bond purchases at its September meeting, a bunch of folks predicted we'd see "Octaper", meaning the tapering of purchases would come in October. That now seems incredibly unlikely. Between the likely

Now that the Senate has killed the latest proposal passed by the House, and with Harry Reid making it clear he is not interested in a one week Continuing Resolution stopgap, Bloomberg reports that the House will take the tabled bill and make these

The U.S. government began a partial shutdown on Tuesday for the first time in 17 years, potentially putting up to 1 million workers on unpaid leave, closing national parks and stalling medical research projects. Federal agencies were directed to cut