Losing Money on Wall Street is a “Badge of Honor”

On Wall Street, it seems, the more aggressive and reckless the stock trader the more money he's going to make - the bigger the bonus. And, even if he loses a lot of money, it's not his money and he's then potentially valuable to another trading firm if he does in fact actually get fired for losing said money. The incentives are horribly skewed towards risky trading. The stock trader who loses money might go to jail if they're caught doing something illegal (even jail time is rare though), but if they're just making risky trades, which the firm he

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Tagged badge of honer, losing money, wall street

Piggy Bank Flash Mob on Wall Street

100 Piggy Banks descended on a Wall Street brokerage firm to protest hidden fees. Is that Lloyd Blankfein in the video? Too bad it wasn't a real Wall Street banker who ran into the flash mob - I'm guessing he'd be pretty scared if he came around the corner of the parking garage and saw this mob of people dressed as piggy banks.

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Tagged flash mob, piggy bank, wall street

Wall Streeters Pay $95 an Hour for Abuse

Former amateur boxer, as in Golden Gloves champion of New York, Eric Kelly, spends his weekday evenings training men in finance (a lot of Wall Street traders and investment bankers) -- and beating them up, both physically and verbally. How much does he charge for the boxing lessons and the verbal abuse? Try $95 an hour. Here's a couple sample zingers: "I bet someone gave you a wedgie on your way here." "You can't do push ups and you're 26? I feel sorry for your father."

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Tagged boxing, verbal abuse, wall street

How to Date a Wall Street Man?

Ah, how did I miss this piece on CNBC? You'd think it was some sort of a joke. Ladies, if you want to date a stock trader or investment banker, don't tell long stories, Wall Street men don't have long attention spans and will get bored. Yes, these are real dating tips:

4) "Tell stories that are short and sweet because the mind of a Wall Street man is always moving so rapidly and focusing on so many different things that his attention span for social stories is very short; don’t be insulted by this, just tell your stories in a

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Tagged dating, tips, wall street

FRONTLINE: Preview “Money, Power and Wall Street”

Beginning April 24: FRONTLINE tells the inside story of the global financial crisis. Is the system any safer? Since 2008, Wall Street and Washington have fought against the tide of the fiercest financial crisis since the Great Depression. What have they wrought? In a special four-hour investigation, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of the struggles to rescue and repair a shattered economy, exploring key decisions, missed opportunities, and the unprecedented and uneasy partnership between government leaders and titans of finance that affects the fortunes of millions of people around the world. Watch on air and online beginning

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Tagged frontline, pbs, wall street

The People Who Make Money on Wall Street

Some more truth from James Altucher: the only people who make money on Wall Street are the long term holders who start companies, funds that charge fees, the high frequency traders, members of Congress trading on insider information, and a lot of hedge funds who will do pretty much anything to get access to insider information:

I know from personal experience. You’re smart, talented and yet you want to use those talents to do some hocus-pocus that you think will put you ahead of the other 5 million people who are trying to win in the markets: people a lot smarter

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Tagged james altucher, make money, wall street

Michael Douglas: Greed Isn’t So Good

What! Michael Douglas just said the 1987 movie "Wall Street" was fiction. I thought this was a documentary! What is going on? What's next, they're going to tell me Research in Motion really isn't coming out with a phone like the one Douglas used while walking on the beach? This is crazy.

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Tagged fiction, insider trading, michael douglas, wall street

Wall Street: Work Less Make More

Wall Street is perhaps the only place where you can make more money by working less. Sometimes doing nothing is the best thing you can do. And that's why it has such an allure and tempts so many people into its clutches. You see the stocks go up like a rocket ship and want to climb aboard. It is like gambling. There's no two ways about it. However, what's interesting, is a few wise and well-timed trades can make you wealthy, hence the allure and the tempting. On the other hand, a poorly timed and risky trade and you can

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Tagged gollum, wall street, warren buffett, work less make more

$85,000 for a Painting of MF Global’s Jon Corzine

Do you have $85,000 you can spare? If so, you could get yourself a nice painting of for MF Global chief Jon Corzine by artist Geoffrey Raymond. Part of what makes the painting unique is he gets passers by and former employees of said company to write comments on the painting - I'm sure that the comments are in good taste. Yeah, right. He takes the pictures to the so called 'scene of the crime' to get these signatures that surround the sides and top of the paintings. I love the concept but not the price. It's a little steep

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Tagged Geoffrey Raymond, jon corzine, wall street

Here’s the Mario Batali Comment Everyone’s Talking About

What's the big deal, so he compared Wall Street bankers to Stalin and Hitler, who hasn't. Now Wall Street is angry and threatening to boycott any Batali restaurants. Come on, so he exaggerated and went too far. He's a chef. He doesn't know any better. He's just trying to make some food.

"So the ways the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed and taken most of it into their hands is as good as Stalin or Hitler and the evil guys," Batali said. "They're not heroes, but they are people that had a really huge effect on

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Tagged bankers, hiitler, mario batali, stalin, wall street