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’‘If only European credit investors had their own prescient cephalopod’
Congratulations, markets: Paul the psychic octopus probably has a better handle on the future right now.
That, at any rate, was the implication of Barclays Capital’s European Credit Alpha note on Friday,
Managing the vampire squid, one scenario at a time
Referring to Goldman Sachs as a vampire squid, the graphic description evoked by journalist Matt Taibbi for a Rolling Stone profile of the mega-bank last summer, has become somewhat passé.
But the bank is still battling the godzilla-like imagery evoked by Taibbi — alongside derivatives and AIG-bailout controversies.
We’re yanking the Vampire Squid auction
Executive decision this.
Upon receipt of an “enveloping” bid from a fan of Tracy’s sculptural talents, the charity auction for the hand-crafted Vampire Squid is hereby cancelled.
The prospective owner,
Goldman’s friendly and finessed results
Cast your mind back to Goldman’s results for the second-quarter of 2009, which at the time provoked a certain amount of anti-Goldman rage.
The bank was getting too risky, the bankers were being paid too much.
Rampant alpha – Goldman Sachs edition
The chart below tracks the performance of the hallowed Goldman Sachs European “conviction buy list” relative to the MSCI Europe index.
It shows that Goldman’s analyst calls have outperformed the index by 14 per cent since January,