DEFCON 1, who should we trust?

European credit markets were saved by the ECB injecting about 94 billion Euro's into the money markets. WTF???? How could it be that BNP stated this a couple of weeks ago and is stating this today what happened ? It smells like crisis........ a real one........

Eurivatives....

Have a look what happened here in the UK last week and have a look what happened here in Italy. Will there be more bad news in Euro land the next weeks?

Red Alert this summer?

It looks like the big snowball is starting to roll in the Middle East. The current conflict in Lebanon could be the start of the first phase of a huge Middle East war. It has been a long time that I have seen so much buzz on the web about a possible conflict involving Israel, Syria, Iran, Lebanon. The trouble is that more reports indicate that we could see a conflict this summer.

What will the effect be on the markets when the sh!t hits the fan?

I still knew that this report was around from a Dutch investment bank with the title "Attacking Iran"

Good luck

MiFid the killer of old style order execution

November will be a hot month for all banks and brokers in Europe as MiFiD will be implemented. It even looks like some of the trading venues of those brokers and banks can pick up a Darwin award. Those who invested heavily in technology in the past years (mainly the US and UK based prime brokers) will have a huge edge to those who didn't and it looks like there are still a view of those around in Europe. Problems could be there for those mid- tier investment banks and brokers that still execute their trades like they did back in the 90's. It looks like MiFid could be the expensive enforcer of Trading 2.0.

The definition of Best Execution......

Take without the owner's consent; "Someone stole my wallet on the train"; "This author stole entire paragraphs from my dissertation".....my bank executed my orders and altered transaction prices - to the bank's financial benefit.

Balkan surprise

Well well it looks like tensions in the Balkans are rising again. Some of the foot soldiers went already to the US to get the Kosovo into the picture. The question remains how important Kosovo is for the USA....very important.

Sarkozy Hedge Funds and AIr France

Sarkozy seems to be on the winning hand according to some media reports. We have to see how the markets and the euro will react to his victory. Hedge Funds according to this article should be less happy. It looks like Sarkozy can start his dialogue with Hedge Funds right away as "the vultures" seem to be looking for new prey.