Disgruntled former Enron shareholders looking to recoup some of their losses have been dealt a major blow by the Supreme Court, which declined to review their lawsuit against the investment banks that helped Enron CFO Andrew Fastow enter into sham transactions designed to hide debt and inflate the company's profits.

The Supreme Court's decision not to hear the case is, frankly, insane. Major investment banks entered into deals with Enron that clearly served no economic purpose other than to inflate the company's financial statements.

For instance, some of the transactions involved things like selling a barge to a consortium of investors and then buying it back for more money during the next quarter. What could these sophisticated investment bankers possibly have thought was going on?

In effect, the investment banks served as maitre d's renting out hotel rooms in 15-minute slots to leggy blondes who signed with names like "Crystal Divinity" and men who signed "John Doe." And now they're trying to claim that they didn't know there was any kind of scheme.

These investment banks willingly helped Enron conspire to defraud investors, and now they're being shielded from civil liability for the scheme that they were an integral part of. That's wrong.

The sub-prime mortgage market is in shambles. But Wall Street, making every effort to rid itself of risky mortgage-backed securities, has found a new group of potential buyers -- university endowments.

The Wall Street Journal reported (subscription required) that university endowments have started to dip into the risky world of buying sub-prime mortgage debt. An opportunity recently stemmed from two money-losing hedge funds at Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), and one that required loans from various banks to halt the seizure of the fund. Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) a lender to these funds, auctioned some assets it had seized from Bear for $850 million. However, the auction sold for less than half that amount, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lou Morrell, vice president for investments and treasurer at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. is quoted as saying he sees value in those auctions. "There's an opportunity out there to buy these loans at a discount," he told the WSJ, and that "will be popular with a lot of endowments out there." The university is placing $25 million of its $1.2 billion endowment with a hedge fund to invest in sub-prime mortgages.

They're not the only ones dealing in big risk either.

Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN) option implied volatility suggests large risk into PDUFA.

DNDN is recently down $0.27 to $15.18. DNDN Provenge has a May 15th PDUFA date. On 3/29 the FDA Advisory Panel said DNDN's Provenge is safe for prostate cancer. DNDN May option implied volatility is above 210 according to Track Data, suggesting large risk.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) implied volatility collapses after EPS; suggesting less risk.

MSFT, is recently up $1.21 to $30.31, after reporting a third-quarter profit increase of 65%. Prudential Securities said "Strong F3Q results driven by better than expected Vista sales to the consumer market; provides largely inline FY08 guidance." MSFT call option volume of 135,478 contracts compares to put volume of 58,345 contracts. MSFT May option implied volatility of 19 is below yesterday's level of 26 and below its 26-week average of 21 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing risk.

Option volume leaders today are: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Daily Option Update is provided by Stock Options Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

This morning, Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) announced in an SEC Filing that it is commencing an offering of debt securities with 5, 10, and 30 year maturities. The net proceeds from the debt issuance will be used to repay a portion of its outstanding bank debt and for general corporate purposes.

Unfortunately, because the debt amounts are not specified and since these are unregistered, we probably won't really know how much was sold until the next quarter's results are out in July.

These debt sales are not for retail clients as they fall under the Rule 144A, which usually has $100,000 minimums and they are not required to be registered. These securities are actually the first security sales under filing for the cable entity since it became a separate entity from Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: TWX).

The cable subsidiaries Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. and TW NY Cable Holding Inc. are the listed guarantors of the debt securities.