One of the most surprising outcomes from the government’s “stress test” release comes from a bank that many thought was adequately capitalized to weather further deterioration in the markets.  Among the 9 banks which the government will be forcing to raise new capital to cushion their equity position is Wells Fargo [WFC: 24.87, 0.00 (0.00%)].  Wells Fargo has been one of the few large-cap banks who were extremely conservative during the banking boom.  Now they are being asked to raise an additional $13.7 billion, when management feels their current capital position is fine.

During the banking boom, Wells Fargo avoided tactics used by other banks to raise their bottom line.  Since it was founded in 1852, the bank has proven itself to be one of (if not the most) conservative banking institutions.  It does not like to be classified

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Avery Goodman

On Tuesday morning, gold derivatives dealers, who had sold short in the face of a fast rising gold price, faced a serious predicament. Some 27,000 + contracts, representing about 15% of the April COMEX gold futures contracts remained open. Technically, short sellers are required to give “notice” of delivery to long buyers. However, in reality, buyers are the ones who control the amount of gold to be delivered. They “demand” delivery of physical gold by holding futures contracts past the expiration date. This time, long buyers were demanding in droves.

In normal times, very few people do this. Only about 1% or less of gold contracts must be delivered. The lack of delivery demand allows the casino-like world of paper gold futures contracts to operate. Very few short sellers actually expect or intend to deliver real gold. They are, mostly, merely playing with paper. It was amazing, therefore, when March

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Take our quiz: Is the market even close to normal anymore?… Credit freeze continues to thaw… Mayer and Denning on what companies need to rebound… Home prices fall again, consumer confidence crashes, but market rallies? … Eric Fry on when this global financial trauma will come to an end… Plus, want a DVD copy of I.O.U.S.A.? Get the details below…

Pop quiz: The biggest company in the world? Nope, not Exxon Mobil, not today anyway. Would you believe…

Oh, how twisted the markets have become.

In European trading this morning, shares of Volkswagen AG leapt 93% when word leaked that Porsche would be upping its stake from 49% to 75% — a controlling stake of the company. Buyers rushed in, short sellers were squeezed (big-time) and, for a

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Link FestHedge Fund Link FestIn case you have been reading up on bank failures and bail outs all week and missed much of the news on the hedge fund industry here is a link fest out to many of the events which recently occurred in the industry:Citadel, TPG-Axon Stumble Toward Worst Year in Hedge-Fund SwoonBloomberg - USA19, the worst first nine months of a year since Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. started tracking the data in 1990. Investment gains are being ... Worth Interviews Hedge Fund Guru David EinhornMarketWatch - USAIn the case of Lehman Brothers, one of those short sellers is David Einhorn, the head of hedge fund Greenlight Capital. Last May Einhorn stated publicly ... ...

Got Gold Report Comments on Proposed SEC Short Sale Rule S7-08-08

By Gene Arensberg 30 Jun 2008 at 02:10 PM

ATLANTA (ResourceInvestor.com) — I’d like to comment on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed naked short selling antifraud rule S7-08-08 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, issued in Release No. 34-57511. The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to crack down on illegal manipulative short selling.

As Dr. Robert Shapiro pointed out in his May 8, 2008 comment, while naked short selling is presumed to be a small amount of the trading volume when compared to all volume of the exchanges as a whole, when the illegal practice is concentrated into thinly traded small and micro-cap companies it can make up a large portion of the trading activity in those issues, perhaps even a majority of all trades for those issues for extended periods of time.

Small, thinly-traded issues on

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Some people are making this way harder than it is when it comes to making money. I make it very clear when I am going very long and when I am only buying a few to a hundred shares of something. A newbie will not know this but anyone with at least a few months will know that. So when you see that there are so many longs tonight don’t get too excited thinking that this market is going to be super bullish. It is what it is. A low volume rally. But this low volume rally is loaded with short sellers, via the NYSE short interest constantly hitting all-time highs now at 14.27. So as long as the short sellers jump in the market and people continue to deny the rally–bulls fell to 37% from 50% in this week’s investors intelligence poll. I have heard some actually say “I thought we ...

Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob’s Advice!  As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

One of my favorite activities as author of this blog is to receive, read, and respond to email and comments regarding investing.  I hope through these discussions that I have helped others understand investing concepts as much as I learn from these questions as well.

Earlier today I received a nice letter from Randy S. who commented:
“hi,
what a great blog. I just found it last week. I’m trying to learning more about stock analysis and had a question about BLUD

“Going back to Yahoo for a few …

Picking tops is a fools game. Short sellers have been crushed during this oil rally and the trend remains higher. The chart below suggests a POTENTIAL level where this market may find some selling, just below 135. Longs should have tight stops.

Short Seller Trivia: In the May 1 “Market Insider” blog, which green stock did shorts want badly?

There is also interest by

- Lehman traded lower yesterday by 8.9% to $38.71 on rumors that the firm is "short on cash".  Keep in mind this same type of rumor and corresponding sell-off happened with Bear three weeks ago.  I'm not saying the same is going to happen with Lehman but I am saying taking caution in trading this name. The shares have fallen 41% percent this year amid the $200 billion in industry-wide losses.  I wouldn't be surprised to see more weakness in this stock over the next week or so. 

- The number of bearish put options traded on Lehman's stock exceeded call options by 3-to-1 and put volume in the first three hours of the day topped the daily average of the past 20 sessions. This is a very bearish sign with respect to investor sentiment as it applies to LEH.  Puts are generally bought by people who believe

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