Le jeu est fait

As the digital clock ticked over to 8.30, Bond watched his screen carefully.  Le Chiffre showed his hand, and while it was a good one, somehow it wasn't quite as good as Bond had feared.   Looking at his own position, he exhaled and felt the tension drain from his body.  Bond's hand was superior.  He had won.

Bond accepted the congratulations of his fellow agents with dispassionate grace.  Somehow, he almost felt disappointed.   Defeating Le Chiffre had almost been too easy.  So much for Research Section's warning to expect an adversary as dangerous as SMERSH or Blofeld's SPECTRE.

After taking a last swig of coffee, Bond rose from his chair and strode purposefully out the door in the corner of the trading floor.  He punched the 'G' button in the wood-paneled lift, then closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall of the small enclosure.  Perhaps Moneypenny would take him up on his offer tonight?  Or maybe he should ring up that fit instructor from the cycling studio...

As the lift doors open, Bond reached into his pocket and extracted the gunmetal cigarette case.  Opening it, he took one of the gold-banded cigarettes made specially for him by Merloni Bros. and lit it with his antique Ronson lighter as he exited the building.   Taking a deep drag, Bond watched the pedestrians stream by.  How little they knew of the dangers from which Bond had protected them!

Suddenly, Bond's mobile phone began to ring.   He fished into his pocket to retrieve it, then answered.  "Yes?"

"It's 009.  You'd best get back up here, 007.   Something's not quite right."

Cursing silently under his breath, Bond took a final puff of his cigarette, ground the remainder under his heel, and re-entered the building.  A 30-second lift journey can seem like an eternity when your position is coming a-cropper and you don't know why or how badly.  Bond gave a sour look to the man who darted into the elevator just as the doors were closing, then pushed the button for the floor two levels below Bond's.  Another ten seconds added to the journey!

When the lift doors finally opened onto his floor, Bond fairly sprinted back to his desk.  009 was waiting for him with a worried look on his face.   "It's your friend Felix Leiter, 007.   Le Chiffre seems to have caught him out and it looks like he's in rather a bad spot.  He managed to get a message out to warn you."

"Thanks," said Bond coolly.  "Eh bien, Le Chiffre.  Le jeu est fait."

Stay tuned to your screen to see if Bond can survive his encounter with the treacherous Le Chiffre.

Macro Man is a charity bike ride this weekend and will be away for a few days thereafter.   Bonne chance a tout. 
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amplitudeinthehouse
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August 1, 2014 at 3:59 PM ×

Yeah, we've all been cropped,James...but a good day at shatin ,win or lose gets you soon over that. Try it one day, and at the same time find yourself outstanding European filly in the yard.

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Anonymous
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August 1, 2014 at 4:08 PM ×

DB has not been below $34 since September 2012 ... its there now

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Leftback
admin
August 1, 2014 at 5:10 PM ×

Exceptional. You have returned to your métier, old man. Nobody does a pastiche of literature and finance like MM.

(LB channels a crusty old Q, here). Now, DO pay attention, double-oh-nine, as we all know from the early films, Bond studied at Cambridge University, where he (Bond) achieved a Double First in Oriental languages.

You knew that though, guv'nor, didn't you?

Decent week here, although the sell-off was a bit deeper than anticipated and we didn't quite get it right. But then, one never does, does one?

Anyone seen those Permabulls from Wednesday?

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Leftback
admin
August 1, 2014 at 5:16 PM ×

Just had a thought, wonder if Banco Espirito Santo was a seller of Argentina CDS? One of the things you learn in this business is that many more things are connected at some level than might at first appear.

The first lot of dip buyers (yesterday's mini bounce at SPX 1940, the 50 day) are looking red-faced. It's worth recalling that this is still less than 4% off the all-time highs, so no need for bulls to pee their pants yet, unless they really need to. Ah, leverage.

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amplitudeinthehouse
admin
August 1, 2014 at 5:18 PM ×

LB, the guv'nor never steps in the Shatin betting ring to back another filly until his sure the last race has been declared correct weight o'l son.
What really wants mentioning is the fact you didn't even need any kodak film for the print...it's splashed everywhere :)

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abee crombie
admin
August 1, 2014 at 5:37 PM ×

the bottom just fell outta HYG. Yeah DB sucks, though I still want to buy UBS if this sell off continues.

MBLY is this months GPRO

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Macro Man
admin
August 1, 2014 at 5:42 PM ×

Actually, in the books Bond attended university in Geneva. Warwick PPE was as close as I could get to Walther PPK however

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amplitudeinthehouse
admin
August 1, 2014 at 6:28 PM ×

Actually , the last time I visited a University library I was given a free book ,that was after I had the pleasure of accompanying a delightful young lady to library having asked me where it was...Oh,the title of the book was Game Theory...
Naturally the guys there said

DON'T SEND IT BACK, WHATEVER YOU DO

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Leftback
admin
August 1, 2014 at 6:38 PM ×

Ian Fleming himself attended the University of Geneva, and in the books, so did Bond, after a spell at Fettes. They probably changed it to Cambridge to make him seem more "English" in the films to the US audience that often misses the nuances of British regional accents. Obviously, Sean was about as English as a haggis...

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amplitudeinthehouse
admin
August 1, 2014 at 8:44 PM ×

It's funny you know, when I heard that futures trader the other day say to the bears " bitches " it never left me you know.
Just saying.

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Al
admin
August 3, 2014 at 3:17 PM ×

I thought you were echoing Jean Paul Sartre:

Plot synopsis (wiki):

Ève and Pierre have never met each other in their respective lives. At the beginning of the book, Ève is very sick, and unknown to her, her husband André is poisoning her in order to marry her sister Lucette and keep the dowry. Pierre on the other hand is planning a revolution, but is killed by his friend Lucien. Both Pierre and Ève do not realize that they have been dead for a while. Pierre and Ève realize different truths about their own lives as they walk invisibly as ghosts amongst the living, with the power to interact only with other deceased souls. Pierre and Ève have difficulty adjusting to this powerless condition. They meet each other in line to register at a bureaucratic clearing house for the recently deceased where both of them slowly find out that there has been a mistake in the paperwork. They are surprised to learn that according to article 140, they were predestined to be soulmates.

Successfully appealing their case, Pierre and Ève are brought back to life and given twenty-four hours to show their love to each other, or their second chance at living will be revoked. However, they are each distracted by unfinished business from their previous lives. Because Ève was poisoned by her husband, she wants to convince her sister that he is not a good man. Pierre wants to stop the revolution to overthrow the Regency that he had planned, because in death he discovered the Regent knew about it, and realizes that if carried out, it will result in the massacre of his friends and the end of the resistance.

Unable to explain the unique circumstances in which they acquired their knowledge, they both have difficulty convincing their friends that they know what is the right thing to do. Neither is able to completely dissociate themselves from the things that were once important to them, and they realize that by not concentrating on their love they might be sacrificing their second chance at life.

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Polemic
admin
August 3, 2014 at 4:18 PM ×

Well Hotair, I followed that link nd read the rest of it and actually was caught by the last line of Satre's purpose -->

"All that keeps us from leading useless, fleeting lives is our power and freedom to interact with the surrounding world according to our own choices"

Powerful but I'd add - unless its trading, which is interacting with the surrounding world according to our own choices but hardly progresses us on from leading useless, fleeting lives!

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amplitudeinthehouse
admin
August 3, 2014 at 9:45 PM ×

"Sartre's primary idea is that people, as humans, are "condemned to be free".

I watch a doco about this guy, and his someone I wouldn't wanted to pit against.But hey, your free to do so.

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Anonymous
admin
August 4, 2014 at 1:38 PM ×

Instruction manual on how to rip off a bank...

http://www.pieria.co.uk/articles/how_to_rip_off_a_bank_esprito_santo_style

DB is next.

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Anonymous
admin
August 4, 2014 at 1:57 PM ×

Eurozone CPI ( YOY ) falls to 5 year low...

http://imgur.com/61TwPzC

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Leftback
admin
August 4, 2014 at 5:57 PM ×

Equity and junior debt holders of BES more or less wiped out, senior debt and depositors bailed out. Another interesting turn of events and another new variant along the continuum of "bail-out" to "bail-in".

At least this one makes some kind of sense in terms of the risk hierarchy and accepted rules of capital structure. Lucky our Kevlar body suit has been at the cleaners, as we had been thinking about a punt late last week. Our commiserations to anyone who lost a toe or two along the way.

While you are pondering this, worth wondering about the junior debt and what institutions took the losses on that. Guessing someone decided the collateral damage was limited enough.

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Anonymous
admin
August 5, 2014 at 1:21 PM ×

"A book on Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva Salgado published in Portugal is called “O Último Banqueiro” (“The Last Banker”)"

http://imgur.com/3DHwXv4

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Anonymous
admin
August 5, 2014 at 1:24 PM ×

Rolling thunder...

"Crédit Agricole Takes $950 Million Charge on Portuguese Bank"

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abee crombie
admin
August 5, 2014 at 7:04 PM ×

Lost a fingernail on the BES punt. Meh.

And now I cant even short HYG/JNK, no available shares.

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Leftback
admin
August 6, 2014 at 12:36 PM ×

MM's interest in Gazprom and other Russian assets might be growing today. Looks like we will see more bargain prices this morning, although then again, there might be another fire sale tomorrow, and the day after, and next week, and the week after that... a lot depends on how emerging markets in general behave in the face of US equity weakness. (Btw, good morning, last week's perennial überbulls and JBTFDers).

You'd still have to say that buying shares in Gazprom here would be like having options on the world not going back to a 1970s Cold War with an effective partition as severe as the Iron Curtain, with all the economic retrenchment that implies. Given the state of Russia's economic and political relations with Germany, I'll take that bet.

Quite why the U.S. is so keen on the Ukrainian government in Kiev annihilating its own citizenry in the East is a topic for another day and another forum. We don't generally belabor politics here, which is often what enables one to take advantage of investment opportunity.

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Leftback
admin
August 6, 2014 at 12:57 PM ×

Don't look now, MM, but we have negative Schatz again. Germany just printed some really bad data and Italy is in a recession. If it ever left.

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Polemic
admin
August 6, 2014 at 1:11 PM ×

Mr Uberbull here LB ,
Yes its looking as through the paper is showing the cracks underneath. Lots of small ones all ading up to some serious structural weakness.

Agree with EM, thats the part that is weighing as we have the Eurozone looking a tad 2012esque again. Agree with US foreign policy, seems to be one of fermentation encouraging foreign home-brews rather than sterilising solutions.

Anyway, this painful for the likes of me. And I have to say the Kevla on the gloves didn't withstand the last slice of BES falling from 35c to the ground floor.

Oh Cockage.

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Leftback
admin
August 6, 2014 at 2:01 PM ×

Cockage indeed, me old China.

Now then, we already have a 1.1% Bund. We are quite clearly looking at a 1% 10y in the near future in a country that is not Japan. So, to all those of an über-bondbearish or hyper inflationary disposition, we hate to disabuse you of your strongly held prejudices but LOOK AT THE DATA.

You can QEase all you want, but as Mr P points out it's just papering over the underlying and ongoing Depression. In 2008, I asked some blokes if we would get the 1930s or the 1970s, the consensus was that it would be some weird fusion of the two.

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Anonymous
admin
August 6, 2014 at 4:56 PM ×

@LB: My 2008 predicion was "at best we'll end up Japanesque". Well, UK is not there, but I was right on EU, so I got something right..

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Anonymous
admin
August 7, 2014 at 10:17 AM ×

C Says
Anon 4.26
I'd hold off on that Uk statement were I you. There's a world of difference between pump and dump election policy and something that will sustain. My best guess is for the UK we're just coming to the end period of phase 1 in the 'pump'.

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