Thursday, September 11, 2008

BWX not looking so good

link
So, these foreign countries were weighted toward ones with serious problems of their own. BWX is now 0.13 % below it's open last October. And, of course, Lehman is on the verge of collapse.
With its massive losses on troubled real-estate securities, the 158-year-old Wall Street firm has been subject to persistent rumors about its solvency, which it says are false. Mr. Fuld has presided over a stock decline of nearly 90% this year... [T]he rolling financial crisis [has] claim[ed] other big players -- Bear Stearns Cos., which was bailed out in March, and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac....
I don't imagine the ETF will do very well if its sponsor pulls out -- I'll just be another creditor suffering through receivership.
But, there's hope. Not for Lehman, for me.
Last week, the central banks of Russia and South Korea again charged into the markets to shore up their currencies by selling billions of dollars from their stockpiles of reserves.

Other governments in developing countries, including Thailand, India and Pakistan, have also intervened to bolster their currencies in recent months.

The sums involved are large. Russia spent about $14 billion in August alone, the largest such drawdown in its reserves in at least a decade, as foreign investors fled following the conflict with Georgia. South Korea has spent more than $21 billion -- or roughly 8% -- of its reserves in the past five months to assist the ailing won.
Maybe I'm too sentimental to be an investor. Or too attached to being right. In any case, banks fail on Fridays, so I have a couple of days to act. Maybe the Everbank Debt Free Index CD?

4 comments:

mark said...

er, you have one day to act. and it's all greek to me anyway. markets are dictated entirely be the whims - or protracted avarice - of the masses.

Rionn Fears Malechem said...

I pulled out. I don't actually know when Lehman Brothers will fail -- it could be tomorrow, it could be next Friday, it could be decades hence.

A friend was telling me at dinner tonight that the index would survive regardless, but that seems a little suspect to me.

Certainly my incentive for participating in the markets is to make money. The theory is that this allocates productive capital efficiently, and if you stay away from more complex financial instruments, that's true to the first order. It's surprising for you to say in one breath that you don't understand investing, and in the next to describe its underpinning, but, as I mentioned, I'm easily surprised.

mark said...

I wasn't clear. I don't understand gullible investors; i do understand the markets who prey on gullible investors.

mark said...

Okay, clarification again, so I don't offend. I'm not saying you or anyone who reads your blog is gullible. Some people understand the markets and do very well by them. Most do not. I hope you're one of the former.