Bear Stearns fell $27 on Friday to close @ $30 and worth $2 tomorrow.

[tonyfloyd]

oh...did i mention if anybody bought the Mar 20 puts on Friday???.....

 

[Focus]

So what about all the employees and familys here? Do I smell another MCI Worldcom?

 

[draggar]

So what about all the employees and familys here? Do I smell another MCI Worldcom?

Another case of big businesses playing their money making games at the expense of the people who actually work their @$$es off to help these execs get big bonuses.

 

[Gerry]

Let me guess...Let me guess...A new bankruptcy law goes into effect, making it harder for consumers to prove that they should be allowed to clear their debts

Bingo! I remember seeing Bush and the banking and CC heads all smiles as this was signed into law. I knew what was going to happen.

And it did.

The flood of credit card offers, low rates, huge limits. Soon this was followed by the countless refi offers in the mail. Subprime loans were already in place but not pushed as hard. This changed all of that.

All of a sudden, there was an endless stream of offers to the point it almost seemed like it was a "free money" sheme.

"Here. Take it. This is for you. No strings attached".

What was attached to it was credit, collateral, and houses. Then the flipping homes games started. Buying and selling condos and homes site unseen. No worry. They could resell in a matter of hours and make 10K.

Money, money, money every where.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten one major clue...you had to pay it back.

Yes, thank Mr. President and members of Congress for making it now virtually impossible for the common person to file bankruptcy.

Pretty damn nice set up, don't you think?

Make it damn near impossible for individuals to file bankruptcy when they have made some bad decisions. Then follow up this law with offers from banks for money out the waazoo.

And now we see banks and lenders going under. But not to worry. That same president and congress have had a plan to rescue the billionaires.

Billions of dollars in bad decisions that I know have to pay for.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Focus]

I don't understand how a few big withdrawals caused a company to fold...still makes me shake my head...they must have no cash flow

 

[Gerry]

So what about all the employees and familys here? Do I smell another MCI Worldcom?

Tough luck, as usual.

I don't understand how a few big withdrawals caused a company to fold...still makes me shake my head...they must have no cash flow

NO CASH FLOW!

Their debt to equity ratio is 28:1.

They held $30 billion dollars of bad notes/bad debt.

 

[Theo]

Pumped gas today - $3.39 per gallon, regular grade. Unreal.

 

[draggar]

Fort Lauderdale - $3.50 a gallon.
Another thing that's strangling our economy yet Mobile / Exxon is posting roughly $11,000,000,000 PROFIT each QUARTER.

Our next president, whoever it is, better have a grip on reality and see the $h!t that is going on and strangling us.

And don't get me started on insurance companies...

 

[Gerry]

Pumped gas today - $3.39 per gallon, regular grade. Unreal.

$3.24-$3.29 here.

But diesel went from $3.39 to $3.99 in a matter of days. Seemed like everyday it was going up at least 10 cents.

Wow, wiki is updated quick!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_stearns

 

[Focus]

I don't know how non-domainers are getting by.....to think that I paid for my tank of premium gas today (3.9999999/gallon) with a few big clicks...ahhh the Internet is good, but everything else seems to suck right now..

 

[tas38]

diesel hit $4.25 here, kero heating oil was at $3.60, and may well have went up even more. We are in such a sad state, that who ever takes the white house will need time. To even start chaging things, the gov't is broke so we have to pay down the bills. Before we can even get started helping things, we are in a world market and it's pulling that down as well.

 

[DNP]

gas $3.65-$3.69 in WA

 

[Focus]

Bear Stearns is at $2 a gallon...um err I mean share

 

[tas38]

It's like having a new 4X4 truck you just paid 40k for, and now the gas went so high you sell it for $4k. I hate to think what google is worth with their math, let alone what domains are worth.

Anyone care to put a value on the domain name, http://www.bearstearns.com

So lets say you owned just the domain name, how much would it be worth ????

 

[Gerry]

I know tony asked this earlier (er...that's TonyFloyd to y'all) but I wonder how many people shorted this stock.

Wow, nice payday!

I was listening to the radio of one guy who just bought 2000 shares and he lost $56,000+ today.

 

[Focus]

Rare occasion I need to ask about clarification on something...exactly how and why do you make money when you "short" a stock? In a situation like this...where does that money come from?

 

[tas38]

They are getting ready to sue already, if you owned stock sign up now.........

http://www.bearstearnsinvestors.com/

 

[Gerry]

Rare occasion I need to ask about clarification on something...exactly how and why do you make money when you "short" a stock? In a situation like this...where does that money come from?

You are literally betting the stock goes down.

When you purchase stock, you will put in a buy order to buy at a certain price.

Naturally, you are hedging the stock goes up.

The opposite with short. You are shorting the stock hoping it goes down.

Sounds bizarre. You still have to pay the going price. For instance, had you bought 1000 shares at bear stearns you would have paid $30,000.00.

If you shorted at $10 per share, you would have made $20,000.00. Just like you have an idea in mind of when to sell on the upside, you try to guesstimate where the bottom will be.

The money comes from all the losers. So, if you had shorted at $2.00 per share (doubtful anyone did this) you would have made $28,000 plus your original investment for a total of $58,000.00.

But it is risky, less risky now perhaps.

I know a girl who retired at age 42 when she shorted yahoo back in 1999 or 2000 or so. She made a killing.

 

[Poker]

Shorting carries the same risks as going long (buying) except that it requires a margin account and theoretically it has limited downside ($0) and unlimited upside (the sky). Just have a stop and stick to it.

Tony I did have some LEH puts till this morning...did you have some BES puts?

 

[Gerry]

Shorting carries the same risks as going long (buying) except that it requires a margin account and theoretically it has limited downside ($0) and unlimited upside (the sky). Just have a stop and stick to it.

but when they call that margin...ouch!

It is all an educated guessing game. You try to guess where the bottom is.