Como se combate o populismo? "Com eleições", responde Fukuyama

[Ulisses Pereira]

Este artigo do Cramer não tem o sumo que costumam ter aqueles artigos que para aqui transcrevo. No entanto, adoro estas pequeninas histórias.


"Resist Urge to Bail on Summer Fridays"

By James J. Cramer
RealMoney.com Columnist
6/3/2005 9:05 AM


"Uh oh, today features two clashing disciplines: the need to stay focused on the employment number and what it means for the Fed, and the need for those on the East Coast to get to the beach by 2 p.m. EDT in order to beat traffic.

I believe the latter will win. I believe today's the first official day when the market gives us a no-action letter in the afternoon and the whole shooting match takes place in the first two hours.

We used to call these days "Bristol-Myers Fridays" at the hedge fund. That was because about 15 years ago, on one of these June Fridays, Bristol-Myers (BMY:NYSE - commentary - research) "called around" and said numbers were too high. Yeah, in the old days, pre-Reg FD, companies used to "call around" to their friendly analysts and let them know that numbers had to be shaved. It was an informal preannouncement, and when it happened, unless you were among the first callers, you got totally hung out to dry as the stock would sink, sink and sink again and you had no idea what the news was.

I was running about $100 million at the time and was in no position to get an early call. Sure enough, though, I happened to have lucked into a drug analyst through the usual dragnet trawl, who told me that he had just gotten off the phone with Bristol and that the numbers were too high.

I went right to the Morgan Stanley options desk -- do they still have one, Booyah Fightin' Irish -- and bought puts hand-over-fist of virtually every strike I could. Bingo. I made my quarter when the news came out on Monday. Can you believe that not only was all of that legal, but it was considered sport?!?

If that were to happen these days, Bristol would put out the release and the only guys who had it beforehand quickly would get drummed out of the business or sent to jail.

But the takeaway for me was that on Fridays in the summer, things stand still, nobody's around and you get some of your best opportunities.

That's the reason I say, don't let your Hamptons discipline clash with your employment fortitude. The game's best when no one's around, like this afternoon, when the trading floors empty out and only the serious players remain. "

(in www.realmoney.com)