February 29, 2008

Insider Trading

If you trade a stock on insider knowledge and you lose money, do you get your money back when the SEC prosecutes you?

February 28, 2008

PENN Arbitrage Play

In June of last year, PENN National Gaming Inc. (PENN) agreed to be acquired by a group of investors led by Fortress Investment Group (FIG) for $67 in cash for each share of the stock. At the time of the buyout announcement this was a 31% premium over the previous days stock close at $51.14. Right after the merger was announced the stock shortly dropped for 7 straight trading days. Normally after a buyout announcement stocks trade pretty close to their buyout price, say within 5% of the actual buyout offer.

February 27, 2008

Rush Hour Escalator Respect

Situation: You have 5 minutes to make your train. You are about to enter Penn Station and you are presented with the stairs on one side and 2 escalators going down on the other. Which is faster? Optimal solution: The left hand side of the escalator , when sane people are riding it, is reserved for those who choose to maximize the escalator by walking down it. You fly down that sucker , lickity split, no shit.

February 26, 2008

Dear Inner Ear Headphone Guy

….I can hear your music. It’s really loud. Me and the 4 other people around you aren’t staring at you cause we think your fake diamond earrings are kinda cool. Yea that new Timbaland song is kinda catchy but it’s 7:45 in the morning and well I’m trying to read the WSJ and the woman to my right was sleeping until you came on the train. Man you are totally feeling the beat right now, huge adrenaline rush I bet.

February 26, 2008

Useless social networking links

Web 2.0 has brought upon perhaps the silliest design trend to date, that even big media companies are doing. That is the addition of social networking links attached to articles. To the right is an example from nytimes.com. How many people honestly take the time out to bother clicking those links to ‘Digg’ the article or share it with their friends on facebook? Nytimes.com is atleast smart about it and saves on valuable screen space by making the list expandable, while some sit there giving you about 8 useless different ways for you to whore their article on your favorite social networking site.