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You can profit from James Altucher's insanity

James Altucher is a financial journalist for The Wall Street Journal and founder of Stockpickr.com. His articles cover every angle of the market; he also stars in feature videos with other financial luminaries. He is the author of Trade Like a Hedge Fund, Trade Like Warren Buffett, SuperCa$h, and The Forever Portfolio.

He has taken a controversial path lately with numerous articles in the New York Post and Huffington Post. Some articles include: "Global Warming Is a Myth," "Should Insider Trading Be Made Legal?" "School of Hard Cash," "The Internet Is Dead (as an Investment)," and "5 Myths the Recession Taught Us."

Rumors of a new addition to the James Altucher library have entered the blogosphere, so I met with James to discuss a possible new book and the response from his recent aggressive views on finance and the stock market.

Continue reading You can profit from James Altucher's insanity

What's wrong with the SEC investigation of Lehman Brothers?

The SEC is charged with investigating potential illegal activities in the securities markets. The SEC is failing to carry out its responsibility when it cones to the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year.

The SEC has in front of them charges of excessively high volumes of "naked" short selling in Lehman shares. A "naked" short sale is one where you sell a stock short without first borrowing the stock from a willing lender.If you do not first borrow the stock you cannot deliver it. This is called a "fail to deliver" trade. Last year 32.8 million shares of Lehman stock were sold but the sellers " failed to deliver" the stock. 32.8 millions shares of "failed to deliver" trades is a staggering amount.

Continue reading What's wrong with the SEC investigation of Lehman Brothers?

Hedge funds: Suing the SEC?

In the UK, a number of hedge funds are about to sue the Financial Services Authority claiming that it did not have the proper authority to curb short-selling, which cost the funds million of pounds. The FSA is a first cousin of the SEC and performs a similar role.

According to The Telegraph, "Lawyers are being galvanised on behalf of a raft of hedge funds which claim the financial watchdog has illegitimately extended its powers and caused 'wide-spread capital destruction.'"

Whether or not their argument has legal merit, it does have a certain amount of fairness on its side.

Naked shorting, a practice in which investors bet a stock will go down without properly borrowing shares to cover the trade, has always been illegal. The act of shorting itself has for decades been a legitimate enterprise. It acts as a check-and-balance system so that stocks do not rise relentlessly without those who believe they should fail having a stake in the matter.

The SEC has not only done financial harm to a number of hedge funds, it also has taken all of the teeth out of a process that has given trading in stocks an economic and market legitimacy.

If hedge funds sue, they are in the right and ought to prevail.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Last updated: May 28, 2012: 06:21 PM

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