This was a relatively quiet day.
The silver shorts did not deliver a 'gut check' to the market as one might have expected.
The markets seem almost 'controlled.'
Have a pleasant weekend.
"And we headed out of the hotel, went to the airport, got on the plane and, about halfway through the flight, I found myself alone in the President’s cabin with him. I said, 'Mr. President, you don't have a cold. There’s something going on.' He said, 'You bet there is something else going on.' And he said, 'When you find out, grab your balls and run.' Pierre Salinger, On the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1995
"Some of the likely litigation targets are MF Global's main trading partners, its primary banker JPMorganChase, and clearinghouses that processed last minute trades for MF Global as it spiraled towards bankruptcy. Another possibility is MF Global's own United Kingdom affiliate, where about $700 million in customer money is tied up.
But recovering any funds won't be easy.
'In terms of resources, the worst counterparty in the world to go up against in court is the government,' said one bankruptcy lawyer, who asked not to be named due to relationships with firms that have a stake in the outcome of potential litigation. 'The next is JP Morgan.'"
Battle lines forming between MF Global customers, hedge funds
By Nick Brown and Katya Wachtel
Fri Feb 24, 2012 2:36pm EST
(Reuters) - The MF Global saga could soon become a legal battle between hedge funds and the futures brokerage's shortchanged customers, with more than a billion dollars at stake.
As the investigation into the collapse of the Jon Corzine-led brokerage moves into more of a regulatory whodunnit than a criminal case, the guessing game centers on who the two court-appointed trustees overseeing MF Global's liquidation will sue to recoup money owed to customers of MF's broker-dealer unit and creditors of its parent.
Those decisions are not easy ones, legal experts say, and they could end up pitting hedge funds like David Tepper's Appaloosa Management and Paul Singer's Elliott Management - who own MF Global bonds - against brokerage customers trying to recover an estimated $1.6 billion shortfall in their accounts.
It's likely that James Giddens, the trustee in charge of recovering customer funds, and Louis Freeh, the trustee in charge of recovering money for parent creditors, will dispute the ownership of certain assets, said attorney Chris Ward, vice chair of Polsinelli Shughart's bankruptcy practice, who is not involved in the case.
A more complex battle could arise from the fact that both customers and bondholders claim priority for payouts from MF Global's general estate...
Read the rest here.
“Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shalt not be a bystander."You may wish to keep this aphorism in mind with regard to your financial transactions going forward, whether you are in the US, Canada, Asia, or Europe.