31-03-2009, 10:52 AM
Peter
There are many different motives for 'holding paper'. For the deep players, paper is really a laundry and a means to stay in control of price; to game the fine-print of whatever contract it happens to be; to cause price to move in counter-intuitive ways and thus fleece the casual player with the hubris to think he knows how it all works, or niaive enough to take the financial entertainers on Bloomberg, CNBC et al seriously. For others it is a way to trade short term - for example, 'market-making' is simply a trading methodology aimed at profiting from the spread between offer and bid and it matters not one wit what the so-called 'underlying' commodity or index or whatever actually is. For others - and this is the extent of my own involvement - it is a question of slip-streaming the deep players, or rather trying to. I have a rule - very seldom broken - that I never hold a trading position overnight, which is an indication of my faith in the predictability or value of ANYTHING as an investment.
I realise I can be accused of being a knowing accessory to a thoroughly corrupt system. In fact I hold my hand up. But I don't make the rules and a living has to be earned - the same old cop-out excuses eh?
The thing is, if I ever came into possession of demonstrably provable information with the potential to seriously compromise 'the system', I like to think I would have very little hesitation about using it for precisely that purpose - having carefully considered the implications for the safety of my family etc of course - which again is probably a large part of why the system IS so corrupt in the first place. It's just too damned dangerous to become a serious and credible threat/irritant to it.
Quote:....those with paper gold will have only paperYou are quite right about paper; And it applies to paper anything really - including (even especially) bank notes. They are promises pure and simple and have the same credibility and prospects of being honoured as whoever is making the promise. That in fact is the nub of the matter.
There are many different motives for 'holding paper'. For the deep players, paper is really a laundry and a means to stay in control of price; to game the fine-print of whatever contract it happens to be; to cause price to move in counter-intuitive ways and thus fleece the casual player with the hubris to think he knows how it all works, or niaive enough to take the financial entertainers on Bloomberg, CNBC et al seriously. For others it is a way to trade short term - for example, 'market-making' is simply a trading methodology aimed at profiting from the spread between offer and bid and it matters not one wit what the so-called 'underlying' commodity or index or whatever actually is. For others - and this is the extent of my own involvement - it is a question of slip-streaming the deep players, or rather trying to. I have a rule - very seldom broken - that I never hold a trading position overnight, which is an indication of my faith in the predictability or value of ANYTHING as an investment.
I realise I can be accused of being a knowing accessory to a thoroughly corrupt system. In fact I hold my hand up. But I don't make the rules and a living has to be earned - the same old cop-out excuses eh?
The thing is, if I ever came into possession of demonstrably provable information with the potential to seriously compromise 'the system', I like to think I would have very little hesitation about using it for precisely that purpose - having carefully considered the implications for the safety of my family etc of course - which again is probably a large part of why the system IS so corrupt in the first place. It's just too damned dangerous to become a serious and credible threat/irritant to it.
Peter Presland
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
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".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
[/SIZE][/SIZE]