Another Day

You're probably getting tired of my talking about BP. Me too! With the latest $20 billion escrow account ($ 5 billion/year for 4 years) you might think this is the end of the story. BUT, I'll just mention in closing that I have yet to hear the talking heads wake up to the likely shareholder lawsuits that will inevitably follow. With a loss of almost $100 billion in shareholder value over the past 2 months, and now a dividend suspension, the worst may be yet to come. Some cursory research this weekend suggests BP might actually see the spill tab hit $ 60 billion. Just a thought for those considering possible longs.


On a completely different note. . .here's something I'd like to see: At the PGA major events (too bad nobody thought about this for the US Open) there's usually a few numnuts who yell out "In the hole!" just as golfers tee off. Tiger's true believers are famous for this inane rudeness. Imagine if, just as Tiger or Phil is midway through his tee swing, the respectful silence was shattered by the blare of several hundred vuvuzelas. Ditto on critical putts. I'd pay to see that.


I also note with some sadness that in May Britain's Norfolk District Council banned the traditional barroom game of "dwile flonking" just as the inaugural world championships were to take place at the Dog Pub in Ludham, Great Yarmouth. The game, which some believe has been played since medieval times, calls on players to fling a beer-soaked rag from the end of the small stick toward the face of an opponent, and in the event the tosser misses the target two straight times, he must quickly down a half-pint of ale. Those Brits . . they know how to have fun.


Finally, a tip of the hat to Robert L., one of my regular readers who tolerate my ramblings, for forwarding the link to Reuter's Insider and the a list of the top 25 most-favored stocks in high frequency trading. Also note the article entitled "Inside the Machine". This is the Institutional Investor site and carries a repertoire of news of a higher caliber than most of the popular press. I'm still running relative performance testing on the DIA versus the GS list of the hedge funds favorite stocks (using a Schwab metrics filter) which I labeled the HF20. Now I've got the HFT25 to run against the DIA and the HF20. I'll report any interesting results as they develop.


Really, finally, these are the top 10 companies hiring new employees. WalMart, Home Depot, UPS, Starbucks, McDonalds, Coke, Sears, AT&T, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. And you thought there weren't any good jobs available after 4 years of college and 3 years of grad school.