A survey conducted by Johnson Associates, a compensation consultant firm, indicates that compensation for employees of hedge funds, retail banking and private equity firms will be higher by 5%, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Here are some findings of the Johnson sturdy:

• Bond traders will see bonuses for 2010 decline 25% to 30%.
• Stock traders will see bonuses fall by 20% to 25%.
• Employees of asset management firms, including hedge funds, can see a 5% gain, reflecting the increase in assets under management.
• Retail banks are set to increase bonuses 5% to 10%.
• Despite this year's increases, bonuses will be 20% to 30% lower than the all time high in 2007.

Ruthless corporate raider Gordon Gekko returns to the silver screen next week in Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Gekko was introduced in 1987's Wall Street, and his greed-is-good philosophy made the character a cultural icon and cult hero, as well as won Michael Douglas an Academy Award. The questions is, will Gekko hold up in the new millennium? We'll soon find out.

In the meantime, here's a glance at some of the best of Wall Street movies thus far. Are your favorites on the list?

• Pi (1998). A thriller about a paranoid mathematical genius on the run because he might just have discovered a way to accurately predict the behavior of the stock market. A Sundance Festival award winner. See trailer.

Meredith Whitney, of the Meredith Whitney Group, told Bloomberg News that she expects that securities firms around the world will cut 80,000 jobs. This would be about 10% from current levels. The cuts would begin after 2010 compensation payments.

Since the crash, Wall Street firms have been undergoing structural changes. The first wave saw cuts of 330,000 jobs around the world. Some firms have hired some personnel back; however, these small hires do not come close to the jobs lost.

The summer season is almost upon us. If you have ever lived in or near New York City, you know that traffic to New Jersey or the Hamptons is all but impossible. Some commute 8 to 10 hours a day to and from work.

Those who have the big bucks fly. For $200, Liberty Helicopters can fly you from 30th street Pier 6 to Port Mammouth, New Jersey. Similar flights go to Long Island.

Stocks futures on Wall Street headed lower on Thursday in advance of fresh sales numbers from the nation's retailers and losses in foreign markets. Index futures showed the Dow Jones industrial average off by 29 points, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down by 4.75 and 3.5 points, respectively.

After gains Wednesday, stocks ended the day mixed following the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting last month. The record showed members differed over whether to continue or end stimulus and expressed concern about the nation's elevated unemployment rate, which they expect to remain high for some time. The Dow industrials added 1.66 points, while the Nasdaq lost 7.62 points and the S&P 500 ended nearly flat.

The future investment stars are already with us. The NYSE Financial Future Challenge, operated by the NYSE Foundation, By Kids for Kids, K12 Inc. and the United Investors Association, is in full swing, with five finalists just identified. To reach this level, the participants had to develop a new product, idea or process that would "excite, educate and motivate their peers" to become interested in the financial marketplace. The eventual winner lurks within this subset and will receive a $2,500 prize -- a great way to get that portfolio started. And, he or she will be feted at a closing bell ceremony at the NYSE (NYX) on January 11, 2010.

The finalists presented a variety of ideas which are sure to generate some buzz. Kelsey Foss, a 12-year-old from Mountainville, NY, proposed a new television show, "Stock Market Tycoon Idol," which would harness the popularity of reality TV while amping up the content. The program would involve the journeys of 10 kids as they seek to make money or lose it, with the possibility of becoming virtual millionaires along the way. The show would be set at a mock NYSE studio on Wall Street, and exports would be brought out to mentor the contestants. The reality TV reach would help engage a younger audience.

Despite largely positive corporate earnings reports, investor caution has set upon Wall Street. For the third straight day stocks are set to move into negative territory, with futures showing the three major U.S. indexes heading lower ahead of Thursday's opening bell.

Some blamed Wednesday's near 1% drops in the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 on a late-day sell-off driven by the latest Beige Book survey from the Federal Reserve that showed the economy is ever so slowly emerging from recession -- too slowly, it would seem, for investors.

Stocks are poised to head lower as investors continue to digest news out Tuesday about the nation's flagging housing market. While in recent months optimism had crept into builder stocks in anticipation of recovery, a report from the Commerce Department showed new-home construction flat last month.

The news sent the three major U.S. stock indexes lower in trading yesterday, and futures this morning show the Nasdaq Composite Index and the S&P 500 each lower by a half percent, along with the Dow Jones industrial average, which could be trading back under the 10,000 level.

KaChing! KaChing!

It only makes sense to call a company a sound you like to hear. This is exactly what CEO and co-founder Andy Rachleff must have had in mind. His new company -- kaChing, of course -- is backed by Marc Andreesen (a name often associated with that sound) and Jeff Jordan, the CEO of OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN), two guys who usually do a solid job of backing winners. But, they've taken on a challenge by backing a company in the financial services industry.

There is too much noise on Wall Street, and it becomes clearer with each passing day why some of the best money managers and investors in the world choose to do their business from somewhere else.

The most famous of all being 'my pal' Warren Buffett who has operated his business from the amazing "financial Mecca" of Omaha, Nebraska.

Today I wake up to the news that the market is down because oil is down because the world economy may not be healing as fast as many had hoped.

Wednesday, Bernard Madoff requested leniency through his attorney Ira Sorkin, who suggested a sentence of 12 years would be a sufficient penalty for his client's crime of stealing billions of dollars in one of the greatest frauds in history.

Sentencing by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin is set for Monday June 29, and the eyes of the world will be upon him. So will the eyes of the yet-to-be discovered fraudsters everywhere.

My thoughts on the subject are relatively simple and have little to do with revenge or payback. In cases like this I often remember a very old quote from another time and place.

Investors are expecting Wall Street to continue its recent winning ways.

Stocks are poised to open higher as investors await March retail sales data and the weekly unemployment report. Markets in Europe and Asia were higher.

Retail sales, though weak, may not be as bad as investors had feared. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Wal-Mart Stores and a select group of its discounting peers have helped retail sales exceed modest expectations every month since December, and that streak likely will continue."

I am not often at a loss for words, but when I found out that New York is going to spend our tax dollars to retrain investment bankers for some kind of useful work, I was speechless. In total, New York will spend $45 million in government money to retrain investment bankers, traders and others who have lost jobs on Wall Street, as well as provide seed capital and office space for new businesses those laid-off bankers might create.

This raises so many questions: Why does an unemployed investment banker need any taxpayer money? Don't retired investment bankers already have tens of millions of dollars stored up? What kind of work could an investment banker be trained to do that someone would pay for? And if so, that other job would pay so much less than investment banking why would a former investment banker would take the job?

Even though Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner could have made a better impression on Wall Street, the over-reaction to the plan he outlined seems excessive.

In just hours after the announcement, the major indices backed away from the key 20- and 50-day moving average lines and plunged to the bottom of the current trading range. For the S&P 500, the support is at 800 to 820 -- and the index closed just seven points above the top line while the Dow actually penetrated its support line.

It is hoped that Geithner's professorial lecture resulted from inexperience in explaining real issues to the public following an increase of presidential expectations. If that's the situation, then we should see more details and see them quickly.