WallStreetJackass

a good lawyer joke

One afternoon a lawyer was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the road-
side eating grass.
Disturbed, he ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.
He asked one man, "Why are you eating grass?" "We don't have any money for food," the
poor man replied. "We have to eat grass."
"Well, then, you can come with me to my house and I'll feed you," the lawyer said.
"But sir, I have a wife and two children with me. They are over there, under that tree."
"Bring them along," the lawyer replied.
Turning to the other poor man he stated,
"You come with us, also."
The second man, in a pitiful voice, then said, "But sir, I also have a wife and SIX children with me!"
"Bring them all, as well," the lawyer answered.
They all entered the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as the limousine was.
Once under way, one of the poor fellows turned to the lawyer and said, "Sir, you are too kind."
"Thank you for taking all of us with you.
The lawyer replied, "Glad to do it.
"You'll really love my place.
"The grass is almost a foot high"

[h/t RichL]

damn it's good to be a cracker

NYC drug laws are stupid.

In 2001, during his first campaign for mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg was asked by New York magazine if he had ever used marijuana. “You bet I did,” he replied. “And I enjoyed it.”

Mr. Bloomberg may have been the first major city candidate to acknowledge using pot, but as mayor he has led a sweeping expansion of arrests, according to a recent study by Harry G. Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College. During Mr. Bloomberg’s first two terms in office, the lowest-level marijuana arrests were up, on average, by 50 percent over when his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, was in office. […]

The mayor’s office said on Tuesday that it could not estimate the cost of such arrests. Mr. Levine, drawing on studies done in other cities, estimated that they could range from $53 million to $88 million annually.

per Hicks; alcohol is a worse drug than pot , fact.

the new apple store on 67th Street

I'm all about AAPL stuff (apple tv is awesome), but that 24-hour sign burns the back of my retinas at 2am.

this is not Times Square

NYC - it's a hell'va town

suck it Philly!

in the UK the result would have been different

Man, 74, Shoots Carjacker, 18 [twice] 

h/t Jas

high-frequency trading [don't try this at home]

Lately the FT, Blodget and the NYT wrote about computer programs that drive stocks higher or lower for profits over incredibly short periods.

The first thing to note is that in order to make enough money to get people out of bed, the trading volume of these operations would have to be north of 300 million shares a day - which leaves only a few firms that the SEC will be looking into; Northtown (started by the BATS founder - who pioneered the rebate system), Citadel, Lime, Renaissance jump to mind.

The second thing to say, is this sort of thing doesn't cost you money; Individual investors benefit from tighter spreads. For instance, if you decide to buy 100 shares of MSFT and a high-frequency trader sells them to you, this can only get you a better price (nor is your order likely to be big enough for them to pick off).

Lastly, there is a lot more to the rebate-capture trade than the front-running aspect. Or to be more accurate, if you get front-run by one of these guys your trader is not doing his or her job properly - these guys live by the sword, I suggest they die by it. The rebate works as follows: if you are a liquidity provider (someone else takes/hits your offer/bid) you are eligible for a rebate on the execution cost. Most hedgefunds pay no less than 0.5c per share when they trade electronically and a rebate can be as high as 0.25c per share. Only a few companies (see above) can drive their costs below the potential rebate.

I don't normally write about work, but market structure is a fascinating area of the business. I look forward to seeing how this plays out... 

Madoff Day One.

genchi genbutsu!!

The founder of an Islamic television station in upstate New York aimed at countering Muslim stereotypes has confessed to beheading his wife, authorities said. CNN

pot and politics

"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see." Thomas Jefferson, 1781.

some of my finest hours have been on the couch.

I'm for legalizing - or at least decriminalizing - pot; keeping it illegal makes half of our population criminals.

movie homework

Totally Baked

pretty funny. I did have a problem with them saying 29,000 people are killed each year by accidental firearm discharges (conveniently the only statistic they don't use a citation for).