"How Goldman Sach's suckers small investors" (Is the economy REALLY returning?)

[WhiskeyGirl]

How Goldman Sach's suckers small investors

Keith Fitz-Gerald in Money Morning states," You would think in an era in which secret transactions contributed to what's shaping up as the largest credit crisis in history, that there would be some scrutiny of Dark Pool's."  You would be wrong.

Yes, I wonder why there isn't scrutiny of Dark Pools.  Where is the list of toxic assets that taxpayers are paying for?

Who signed all those deals?  Why aren't they held accountable?

For those of you who haven't heard of Dark Pools, they are a place where stock orders are anonymously matched so traders do not alert the wider market of their intentions.  This gives rise to concern that stock pricing has lost transparency.  It is also interesting that the largest recipients of TARP money are the ones most heavily involved in Dark Pools and the largest players.  The largest player of them all is Goldman Sach's and Sigma X.

Could these be insiders trading? 

Where is the hard evidence to support giving any of those banks access to TARP money?  I seem to remember some suggesting money was forced onto banks...

It has been reported that the SEC may be moving toward regulating High Frequency Trading and Dark Pools for the same reason's expressed here and elsewhere.  Because of the corrupting influnce of money and Goldman's influence within the highest levels of government I will not be holding my breath.  I personally believe Dark Pools are how Goldman's and others spell sucker every time the small Middle Class investor gets in the market.

It is to feed the Wall Street land sharks that I believe we are getting all these bald faced lies about the economy coming back.  That way we will ante up our money to Wall Street again believing the economy to be safe, and they will use these trading programs to have another feeding frenzy.

http://www.examiner.com/x-3629-Philadelphia-Progressive-Examiner~y2009m8d29-Sigma-X-How-Goldman-Sachs-suckers-small-investors

Martha Stewart went to jail...

[WhiskeyGirl]

Wheatley: Insider Trading's a Problem in Every Market

WSJ: Just recently, we had news out of Australia that they've opened the door towards "dark pools" being able to operate more freely there. We've written a bit about how these networks are trying to grow their business in Asia. So far, they've been somewhat hampered by the regulatory environment. What's your view on what kind of role they should be playing in trading out here?

Mr. Wheatley: Dark pools have got this wonderful, mysterious name around them, but they're a technological reinvention of the old fax lists that used to be sent around. Twenty-five years ago, every broker would know what its clients wanted before they executed on the exchange, and they'd fax around to a few of their favorite clients and say, "Would you be interested in these stocks?" So it's nothing new really, but obviously the technology is giving it the ability to be much more significant in markets.

I think if customers want that degree of anonymity and midpoint execution that they can achieve, then they ought to have access to it, but in a way that underpins the fabric of a central market. And one of the problems potentially is you get price distortions, possibly gaming through the systems that undermine the integrity of a central market. So the question is, how do you get the benefits of competition without fragmenting the market?

Arguably the U.S. gets closer to it through its national market system, where you do have competition between both dark and lit pools and exchanges, but it's done with a consolidated tape and it's done with access to all those dark pools. That isn't the case yet in Europe and in Asia. We're still at a relatively early stage of these entrants coming to work out how they enter the market. I think we should embrace the fact that it's a new type of service offering what customers want. Competition which raises the quality of the service and brings down costs is a good thing. But we have to try to achieve those without affecting the integrity of the price formation and information processes. I think the U.S. is probably closer to that than anywhere else.

WSJ: Have you been lobbied by any of the dark-pool operators?

Mr. Wheatley: We meet with various of them regularly. Obviously they're all keen to work out how they extend the models which have been successful in the U.S. or Europe and clearly they're looking to Asia as to how they would achieve that. So yes, we've got a pretty regular dialogue with them.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125138808679263897.html

One of the proposals I read about last year was to replace/roll your private retirement programs with a government one that would pay 3%.

It was likened to another Social Security Ponzi scheme.  It featured 'credits' for workers that didn't contribute...

In Mexico, I read the Social Security system returns contributions plus interest only.  If you don't pay in, you don't take out.

Is that why American is a Social Security magnet?  We pay more out than folks contribute?

If retirement plans have a long term focus, why doesn't the market? 

Why not shore up the system to focus on long term growth, and less on short term, nano-second profits?

Why not tax the nano-second traders at say 50% of their earnings?  Discourage market manipulation?

Return to honest dealings and long term growth and prosperity?

[WhiskeyGirl]

How does any government tax the profits from any of these anonymous dealings?  Market manipulations?

"Kaufman: more regulation needed for larger traders"

"Flash orders, high frequency trading, co-location of servers, direct market sponsored access, liquidity rebates, dark pools, retail order flow-all these things happened in the last few years when the people in charge of the SEC and the administration basically felt that we should have self-regulation," Kaufman said in an interview with DealBook.

Kaufman has earned a reputation as a champion for tighter financial regulation in his brief term in the Senate thus far, taking his seat in January to replace former Sen. Joe Biden...

http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2009/08/26/News/Kaufman.More.Regulation.Needed.For.Larger.Traders-3757159.shtml

I wonder how much of an impact Joe Biden had on reform?  Was he a champion of the folks on Main Street?  Wall Street?  Self Regulation?

Maybe taxing profits is better than regulation?

Oops!  Forgot, anonymous trading...

Only the little people on Main Street pay taxes.