Skip to content

The stupid, it hurts

\"Richard

@RichardJMurphy Richard Murphy
@ssap9rulesok The evidence is fund mangers make money from shorting. It is not at all clear pension funds do. Conflicts of interest abound
Sigh.
Pension funds are long only almost all of the time.
So, yes, it\’s probably true that pension funds don\’t make money out of something they don\’t do.

7 thoughts on “The stupid, it hurts”

  2. dearieme

    “Conflicts of interest abound”: you can say that again, Dicky.
    “Conflicts of interest abound”: easy, innit?

  3. Super Sam

    And they might also hedge long positions with puts (well at least the smart ones; one gets the impression there aren’t very of those around).

  4. Worzel

    ‘The evidence is fund mangers make money from shorting’ – Which I assume in Murph’s world makes them ‘bad ‘

    ‘It is not at all clear pension funds do. ‘ Which I assume in Murph’s world makes them ‘good’

    So Fund Managers Bad
    Pension Funds Good

    Now I might be getting confused, but is the same economic guru that is suggesting that the market is about to tank ?

    ‘And I am certain markets will fall to 3,000 or so, soon, as they did in 2002’

    http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2011/11/09/the-ftse-makes-no-sense-at-all/#comments

    and observes that:

    ‘pension funds persist in leaving money in the market . And that’s another disaster waiting to happen’

    So let’s remind ourselves again:

    Fund Managers who make money from a collapse in the market – Bad

    Pension funds who lose money by leaving money in the markets – Good

    Is it me ?

  5. The Thought Gang

    Worzel

    He doesn’t think pension funds are good. So yes, in this instance, it is you and/or, more specifically, your initial inference. That pension funds do not short is (he contends) evidence of the conflict of interests… not that pension funds are good and worthy.

  6. Frances Coppola

    Well, of course fund managers make money from shorting. But if they didn’t, pension funds wouldn’t make money from lending those fund managers securities to cover their short positions, would they? So arguably pension funds DO make money from shorting, indirectly. Trying hard to see where the conflict of interest lies….

  7. Roger Thornhill

    When Hedge Funds short at some point they have to buy, and can snap up the stock of those panicking who would otherwise not be able to sell and watch their losses grow even higher.

    Of course Hedge Funds can tip things over, but then again if it had a firm footing, they could not…and if they were trying to undermine sound stock, bargains would surely be there to be had (money, mouth)?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *