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What Wall Street Person Do You Respect Most?

John Daggett's picture
 
Points)
 on 3/23/13 at 1:15am

They do not necessarily have to be in NY.

I vote for Soros>Icahn=Buffett

Antifragility: Things that gain from disorder

prashantkhorana's picture
CF
(Baboon, 146
 
Points)
 on 12/1/12 at 7:30pm
41sAH5aqtaL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

If you haven't heard about it already, Taleb, the guy behind the Black Swan theory(or as they claim) is out with another book. Although I wasn't intending on buying the book initially, his Saturday essay (WSJ) was what finally convinced me. Then of course Felix Salmon came out with a review along with Matt Ridley , and I just couldn't wait for it to come in.

A brief history of the Drachma

prashantkhorana's picture
CF
(Baboon, 146
 
Points)
 on 11/17/12 at 7:00pm
athenes.gif

In 1827, when the modern Greek State was created, money transactions were carried
out mainly in Turkish coins, as well as in foreign currencies such as the Spanish Distilo. There was no Greek currency until 1828.
A national monetary system, based on silver, was established for the first time in 1828. This silver standard prevailed until 1832. In 1831, the currency’s convertibility into silver was suspended, and paper money was created to finance the budget deficits.

Wriston's Law of Capital(part 2)

prashantkhorana's picture
CF
(Baboon, 146
 
Points)
 on 9/29/12 at 7:00pm
Wriston.gif

This post is a continuation of Wristons Law of Capital: Wriston's Law of Capital

Currently the movement of capital has already started. What was labeled as a rough patch has already turned into much bigger phase. The welfare state is about to come to an end. Whether we call it the age of deleveraging or something else, we don’t know how long it’s going to last.

Keynes idea was to pursue counter-cyclical stimulus, but the western world adapted the spending part and forget about reduction part and is now stuck in a borrowing mess. Amongst the many ways to reduce debt, inflation is probably the most common one, but that’s not what we’ll talk about today.

Wriston's Law of Capital

prashantkhorana's picture
CF
(Baboon, 146
 
Points)
 on 9/22/12 at 7:30pm
Walter Wriston.jpg

Wristons law of capital is named after Walter Wriston (1919-2005). He was a banker, and former chairman of Citicorp. He was widely regarded as the most influential commercial banker of his time(at least according to Wikipedia).

The law states that:
“Capital will always go where its welcome and stay where its well treated…Capital is not just money. It’s also talent and ideas. They, too, will go where they’re welcome and stay where they are well treated”

GPA Question

madmoney15's picture
(Orangutan, 331
 
Points)
 on 3/21/12 at 3:11pm

Okay, so overall I have a 2.9 GPA and my major is History. But in courses related to Business it is a 3.4 GPA but it's only 15 units.

Is it stupid to put in my resume Business Related GPA: 3.4/4.0?

Or maybe just leave out GPA all together?

History Majors in Ibanking...is this even a real thing?

Student7469's picture
(Chimp, 11
 
Points)
 on 2/21/12 at 8:22pm

Specifically history majors at Northwestern, that doesn't really happen right? What about double history/ economics majors, does that happen, hell they probably just disregard the double major and only look at the econ major, right? Someone back me up on this...

Hypo: Ron Paul becomes President

Brady4MVP's picture
HF
(Neanderthal, 3,161
 
Points)
 on 12/28/11 at 10:21am

I'm sure the title of this thread alone can provoke premature ejaculation for a lot of the diehard Paul supporters on WSO. But as a former history major, I love thinking about "what-if" scenarios and various hypotheticals.

So here's a fun one to ponder. What effect will a Ron Paul presidency have on this country if the congressman were to win the 2012 election? Assume for the sake of the hypo that he wins in a squeaker over Obama and that the composition of the congress has not changed. The dems control the senate, and the GOP controls the House.

Here are my thoughts on what will happen. It will be interesting to hear others' opinions as well.

A Little History with Jorge

Jorgé's picture
(Neanderthal, 2,182
 
Points)
 on 2/28/11 at 9:23pm
oiuy

So, another Monday’s about to end and if you’re like me, I bet you’d rather kick back and forget some of the stress and melancholia it usually brings.

My usual habit, if I’m not in front of the TV, is to grab a book and maybe a few drinks but I’ve been on a documentary binge lately and thought some of you monkeys would find some interesting so, here’s a few…

The Fabric of our Lives

Midas Mulligan Magoo's picture
 
Points)
 on 10/18/10 at 11:48am
ctn

The fabric of our lives and arguably the most significant commodity in America's relatively short history.

Cotton. Something we rarely discuss in finance is making the largest and fastest push seen in the commodity sector, since there has been an official commodity sector. After surging 56% over the last three months alone , cotton prices have hit highs unseen since 1870 when the New York Cotton Exchange was created.

Though cotton did trade for more during the early years of the Civil War and though it did hit a higher inflation-adjusted price in 1918, I think we can agree that this is still a pretty significant event.

Help! How to find historical price of share purchases

st84at's picture
IB
 
Points)
 on 8/21/10 at 1:17am

Hey guys, i could do with some help here! how do i find the price that a company paid for share purchases, for some deal that goes a few years back?

Trading /ES: Do impressive practice accounts accounts carry weight when applying for a trading position at legit prop firms??

raybantrader's picture
CO
(Chimp, 7
 
Points)
 on 5/30/10 at 10:38pm

I am interested in trading the /ES at a proprietary trading firm because I could benefit from a team oriented environment would like to learn how other professionals prefer to trade. Though I have a lot of experience trading equities on a short term basis I am relatively new to trading futures with a high-frequency intraday strategy. In the past few months I have developed an obsession for the /ES and began tweaking indicators I had previously used for equities and backtested their results. The accuracy was better than I anticipated which may be due to the high liquidity seen during regular trading hours relative to the equities I use to trade. In order to practice my strategy I started two virtual accounts a few weeks ago, both with 100k. The first one has no commissions factored in and unlimited leverage, and the other has $3.5 a side commission and no leverage. After a couple of weeks of part time trading sessions and about 12 hours of cumulative trading, I had the first account (w/leverage) over $1 million and the second up to 140k.

Trading history for /ES... Do impressive practice accounts carry any weight at legit prop-trading firms?

raybantrader's picture
CO
(Chimp, 7
 
Points)
 on 5/30/10 at 8:16pm

I am interested in trading the /ES at a proprietary trading firm because I could benefit from a team oriented environment would like to learn how other professionals prefer to trade. Though I have a lot of experience trading equities on a short term basis I am relatively new to trading futures with a high-frequency intraday strategy. In the past few months I have developed an obsession for the /ES and began tweaking indicators I had previously used for equities and backtested their results. The accuracy was better than I anticipated which may be due to the high liquidity seen during regular trading hours relative to the equities I use to trade. In order to practice my strategy I started two virtual accounts a few weeks ago, both with 100k. The first one has no commissions factored in and unlimited leverage, and the other has $3.5 a side commission and no leverage. After a couple of weeks of part time trading sessions and about 12 hours of cumulative trading, I had the first account (w/leverage) over $1 million and the second up to 140k.

Duke Econ Major?

tunafish's picture
IB
(Chimp, 6
 
Points)
 on 3/31/10 at 2:09am

I'm currently a freshman at Duke and would like to go into investment banking after school. My advisor is beginning to ask what I am thinking about majoring in. I would like to do econ but from what I hear from my classmates, playing a varsity sport and majoring in econ will be rough here. Is it worth it to major in econ and put my gpa at risk or should I major in something a little easier that will not affect my gpa in a negative way. Some other majors I am considering are history or sociology. If you all could help me out that would be great. Thank you.

What kind of major for business school

hotgurl90's picture
CO
 
Points)
 on 1/20/10 at 6:41pm

I go to the University of Illinois, with a 3.9 and I was wondering do I have to major in Econ or something like that to go to B school? I'm not really interested in banking but maybe consulting, I actually am interested in working as a film studio executive after b school. I am undecided, but I am interested in history or psychology, but I'm concerned that I don't go to a target school, so I can't get into B school because I won't have the right work experience in banking or something. Or is there a right work experience?