Shares Bought in the Dark
By Aaron Lucchetti

A Supreme Court jurist once wrote that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Wall Street, though, is increasingly finding it more profitable to work in the dark.

In the past few years, large brokerage firms, trading boutiques and even stock exchanges have launched or announced plans to start almost 40 trading networks known as "dark pools," named because they attempt to put buyers and sellers together anonymously without exposing their clients' orders first to the public, as happens on traditional stock markets like the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market.

The pools have proliferated as big institutional investors respond

Faisal Laljee submits: I got an email yesterday from the American Stock Exchange that I wanted to pass along:

AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF FIXED RETURN OPTIONS (FROs) ON THURSDAY MAY 8, 2008

Location(s)

I am an ex-IB analyst looking for other ex-analysts to help start a small consulting business in the bay area. Essentially, I am looking for a partner to kick it off. We slap together a PDF, send it to our contacts, and bill out at around $50 an hour. Work when you want, stay in the M&A industry and start a business. Happy to talk more live. Give me some contact info and we can go from there.

Here is a humorous post from Timothy McSweeney's blog by Bob Woodiwiss: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2008/5/7woodiwiss.html

Elementary(AGES 5–10)

1. Dick has $1 million. Jane has $1 million. If Dick and Jane both give their $1 million to T. Boone, how many millions will he claim he can turn it into?

2. On his way home from school, Kyle stops to buy a candy bar. It costs 69 cents. How much change should Kyle get back if he pays for the candy with a $1,000,000,000 bill?

3. Among those earning 10-figure incomes, Mr. Soros's total annual compensation is greater than Mr. Falcone's. Mr. Falcone's is greater than Mr. Griffin's. Mr. Griffin's is smaller than Mr. Soros's, and Mr. Paulson's is greater than Mr. Soros's.

In descending order, list the men by the respective hotness of their trophy wives.

4. A hedge-fund manager gets up at 5 a.m. It takes him 12 minutes to shower, 8 minutes to get dressed, and 20 minutes to eat breakfast. How big is his domestic staff?

So I know of this company that is looking to raise some money ($50 mill or so) by issuing equity (founders want a partial exit) and it's not really what we do seeing as we're not an ib.

Now, with something this small, I have some contacts I can make introductions to, but what is the best way to go about doing it so that I can get a cut of this deal? What should I expect my cut to be?

I've read conflicting things about the candidates and their attitudes towards high finance. McCain would be the traditional stalwart as the Republican. But I have also read that most of the banks are supporting Hilary. What do you all think?

Hey guys,
just wondering what you thought about going straight into a fund of hedge funds as opposed to IBD straight from college... What are the upward mobility options and pay differences going to be like? Also, what is your general opinion of fund of hedge funds?? thanks for your input!