QuantRec.com

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

We're Hiring: Java Developer - Tactical Dev - Portfolio Analysis Platform

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Candidates MUST HAVE green card, US CITIZENSHIP, or valid current h1b with AT LEAST 3 YEARS LEFT.

Call or text 203-29-QUANT 203.297.8268 if you have any questions and are qualified for this role or others posted.

Please speak clearly if leaving a voicemail, and let me know the role you are applying for and if you have sent a resume or not. You may call or text at any time. All discussions and messages are fully confidential...

Email resume onto QuantRec @gmail.com & Quant at QuantRec dot com.

Goto http://www.QuantRec.com for updates on jobs, bookmark it!

Also include the best times to reach you over the near term (this week & or next week).

Candidates MEETING MOST OF the SPEC below will be contacted PROMPTLY.

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Summary: Deeply technical Java Developer with Bachelors or Masters in Computer Science to develop applications for Portfolio Trading. Looking for mid level person to join existing team (5-7yrs experience). Must have strong computer science fundamentals in design, data structures, algorithms, threading. The technical envrionment is combination of Core Java and J2EE. The J2ee consists mostly of session beans, rest is core Java. JMS for messaging. Weblogic Application server. XML. SOA. Only firm requirement is strong server side core Java, strong computer science fundamentals and some experience with large scale systems. Hiring Mgr has 8 yrs of experience and ivy league grad.

Main Function
The Tactical Development Team for the Portfolio Analysis Platform is responsible for supporting the central services of the Portfolio Analysis Platform, with a focus on implementing new client-facing features and bug fixes. The Portfolio Analysis Platform services are built in pure Java running in WebLogic using a Service Oriented Architecture.
As member of the Tactical Dev you will improve the business logic of various services to the Portfolio Analysis Platform to enhance the experience for clients. Candidates for this position must have strong analytical and problem-solving skills. They should be motivated to take ownership of multiple concurrent projects across all phases of the software development life cycle. The candidate must have demonstrated experience in Java application development; including Object Oriented Design, Refactoring, Unit Testing, and Debugging large distributed applications. The candidate will be expected to work independently in a fast-paced environment. They must have strong communication skills and be comfortable interacting with both technical colleagues and business users.
Main Duties
Support and enhance client-facing aspects of the Portfolio Analysis Platform.
Requirements
Basic Qualifications
Masters degree in Computer Science, or related field, or equivalent experience
4+ years of Object Oriented programming with significant Java development
3+ years of Linux experience
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with XML, including XPath and schemas (XSD)
Knowledge of Java Message Service (JMS)
Efficient debugging skills for large distributed systems
Knowledge of financial instrument analytics
Strong analytical and problem solving skills
Excellent communication skills

Monday, July 9, 2012

Government Arrests Bankers You've Never Heard Of for Mortgage Meltdown

Government Arrests Bankers You've Never Heard Of for Mortgage Meltdown

"There is one more twist to the Abacus tale that defies all reasonable belief.

"The irony of this case is the majority of the loans originated by Abacus have continued to perform,” said DA Vance, “which means the monthly mortgage payments are being made by the borrowers.”

In fact, Fannie Mae actually made out on the deal.

As Abacus spokesman James Haggerty told the New York Post, “The bank has among the lowest default rates in the country -- less than 0.50%, compared to the national average of more than 5%. And Fannie Mae made more than $100 million on these loans.’’

U.S. home sales up 20% from last year: DataQuick

U.S. home sales up 20% from last year: DataQuick

During the 30-day sales period ending July 5, approximately 211,000 homes were sold in 98 of the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas, research firmDataQuick said Thursday.

Sales overall rose 12% from the same period a year earlier and 10.6% from 2009 levels.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Poker Bluff Opens Window To Brain’s Effect On Decisions

Poker Bluff Opens Window To Brain’s Effect On Decisions

"By studying how poker player's bluff, scientists say they’ve uncovered new information on a brain region that may drive human decision-making in social settings.

Duke University researchers hooked 20 people to scanners and watched the brain’s reaction as they played a one-card version of poker against either another person, or a computer.

The study, reported today in the journal Science, found the brain’s temporal parietal junction was more reactive when the player faced a human opponent, and that activity in the region predicted whether the subject would bluff. This suggests that part of the brain may help coordinate our relationships with other people, said study author Scott Huettel.

“When you engage with another person and detect they’re relevant for your behavior, this is the region that detects it,” said Huettel, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the Durham,North Carolina, university.

The research used a variety of poker simplified down to one card. The card was either high, and would win if the participant chose to bet, or low, indicating a loss if the research subject bet and was called. Participants won money with a high card or by bluffing with the low card.

Participants in the trial bluffed 54 percent of the time on average, according to the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

The 20 subjects had their brains scanned with fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imaging, a system used in hospitals that traces blood flow to produce detailed pictures of brain activity."

The Questions You Should and Shouldn't Ask In A Job Interview

“Candidates must ask questions to determine if the job fits their career path and objectives,” says Lynn Taylor, a workplace expert and author of Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant. “The fact that this is a two-way interview is often lost on many job candidates, especially in this period of high unemployment, when it seems like employers hold all the cards. While you don’t want to be too choosy, you must be prepared in advance to ask any and all questions that will lead to the best possible match for you.”

So while you need to use the interview to convince the employer that you are the best candidate for the job, you also need to be convinced that the job and the company would be a great fit for you. “There is only one way for you to determine if the job is for you, and that’s to ask the interviewer the right questions,” says Andy Teach, a corporate veteran and author ofFrom Graduation to Corporation: The Practical Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder One Rung at a Time.

Earnings reports to show that record corporate profits are OVER

Earnings reports to show that record corporate profits are over

"NEW YORK — For almost three years, no matter what has rattled the financial markets — a debt crisis in Europe, high gasoline prices, a slower economy — investors have been soothed by rising corporate profits.

The storyline became as predictable as a soap opera's. But when the latest round of corporate earnings starts rolling in this week, look for a twist: Profits are expected to fall.

"China is still slowing. Manufacturing numbers in the U.S. are weak," says Christine Short, senior manager at Standard & Poor's Global Markets Intelligence. "You can only have so many things working against you."

Stock analysts expect earnings for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index to decline 1 percent for April through June compared with the year before, according to S&P Capital IQ, the research arm of S&P.

That would break a streak of 10 quarters of gains that started in the final quarter of 2009.

Over recent weeks, a motley collection of chain stores, steel producers and technology titans have warned of slowing profits. They all point to similar culprits — flagging sales to Europe and slower economic growth in China.

"You've seen the evidence," says Adam Parker, chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, the investment bank. "A ton of companies have already told you the economy is slowing."

The list of companies that have warned of trouble is long and varied, and includes well-known names such as Procter & Gamble, Ford, Nike, McDonald's, Cisco, Starbucks and Tiffany."

Thursday, July 5, 2012

As US economy steadies, bank closings become rarer

As US economy steadies, bank closings become rarer

Fewer U.S. banks are failing than at any time since the financial crisis erupted in 2008. The healthier banking industry is helping sustain an economy slowed by lackluster hiring, weak manufacturing and Europe's debt crisis.

GUY KAWASAKI: The Real Rules On How To Innovate

1) If you really want to innovate, give meaning to your product

Kawasaki encouraged attendees at the World Innovation Forum to “want to change the world” with their products, noting that this ethos was at Apple’s core. He used Nike as an example, citing the company’s ability to infuse meaning into its sneakers. Kawasaki emphasized how “a little bit of cotton, leather and rubber” became symbolic with this 1990s Nike ad empowering women.

2) Have a mantra

If you really want to be innovative, said Kawasaki, create a mantra. Mission statements are lengthy and unmemorable, and people need to know why your organization exists. Kawasaki gave Wendy’s (“healthy, fast food”), FedEx’s (“peace of mind”), and eBay’s (“democratic commerce”) as examples.

3) Don’t worry, be crappy

Kawasaki stressed that there never will be an ideal time to innovate, and not to wait to perfect your product. The key is creating something that is a “revolutionary jump,” and doesn’t exist in the marketplace. He referred to the first laser printer as “a piece of crap, but a revolutionary piece of crap.”

4) Be willing to polarize people

All great products polarize a subset of the population, and Kawasaki urged leaders not to be afraid of this. He used TiVo as an example; Kawasaki loves recording his favorite shows on the device, but knows that advertisers loathe how viewers can skip through commercials. The most important thing, he said, is for a select few to really love your product.

5) Perfect your pitch

When presenting, Kawasaki thinks leaders should stand by the 10, 20, 30 rule: create 10 slides for a 20 minute presentation, and use 30 point font. He stressed the importance of providing both assistance and insight in the pitch, and including something unique for that specific audience.

6) Don't stress if your target audience rejects your product, but others embrace it

Often companies panic when their product is used in unintended ways, and then spend an untold amount of time and money trying to get the "right" people to embrace it. Kawasaki says that this line of thinking is wrong. Instead, companies should say "hallelujah!" that people are buying from them, and gladly take the money.

7) Niche thyself

Produce something that is valuable and unique, says Kawasaki, something that truly makes peoples' lives easier. Kawasaki uses the company Fandango, which allows customers to print out movie tickets at home, as an example. When Kawasaski takes his children to the movies, he wants to make sure that the film isn't sold out before he gets there. He gladly pays Fandango's relatively small fee for this convenience and his own peace of mind. "

Hedge funds fail to wow in first half

Hedge funds fail to wow in first half

"Hedge funds have little to brag about halfway through 2012, with some of the industry's biggest names reporting only small gains and trailing the benchmark U.S. stock index by a wide margin.

Paul Tudor Jones' flagship fund is up 1.59 percent through the third week in June and David Einhorn's biggest portfolio is up 3.7 percent in the first half, while Daniel Loeb told investors that his largest fund rose 3.9 percent during the first six months of 2012, investors in the funds said.

Compared with a year ago when many hedge funds were losing money, these returns might be something to cheer, especially since they beat the benchmark HFRX Global Index's 1.22 percent gain.

But they pale measured against the 8 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index during the first half, with the $2.1 trillion industry failing to wow at a time that public pension funds are increasingly turning to hedge funds to shore up returns.

The industry's underperformance may again raise questions whether it makes sense for institutional investors to pay hefty fees to hedge funds when they can earn better returns from low-cost index funds. Unlike most other portfolios, hedge funds take a management fee plus a performance fee that is often 20 percent or more.

EUROPE HURTS AGAIN

Europe's seemingly endless debt crisis is getting much of the blame for the year's anemic returns, but concerns about U.S. growth and how China will perform are also making for uncertain trading conditions, experts said.

With the steady stream of European news making for what traders are calling excessive volatility in the short term, hedge fund managers betting on big events are having a tougher time, experts added.

"People are over-managing their positions," said Peter Rup, chief executive and chief investment officer at Artemis Wealth Advisors, saying that funds moved to short positions only to see those turn against them when markets rebounded after having tumbled."

Face off: Navy SEAL vs. Marine on Wall Street

Job market perks up

FX Trading-System Boom Fuels Liquidity Concerns

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

We're Hiring: Executive Support Specialist (Top Financial Firm, NYC)

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Candidates MUST HAVE green card, US CITIZENSHIP, or valid current h1b with AT LEAST 3 YEARS LEFT.

Call or text 203-29-QUANT 203.297.8268 if you have any questions and are qualified for this role or others posted.

Please speak clearly if leaving a voicemail, and let me know the role you are applying for and if you have sent a resume or not. You may call or text at any time. All discussions and messages are fully confidential...

Email resume onto QuantRec @gmail.com & Quant at QuantRec dot com.

Goto http://www.QuantRec.com for updates on jobs, bookmark it!

Also include the best times to reach you over the near term (this week & or next week).

Candidates MEETING MOST OF the SPEC below will be contacted PROMPTLY.
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Executive Support Specialist (Top Financial Firm, NYC)

Need an extraordinarily bright technologist to provide direct technical support to the firm's senior management.

The candidate will work closely with our IT systems staff and will be responsible for projects covering a wide range of technology.

On-site and off-site support for all technology-related needs of the firm's senior management: installation, configuration, and troubleshooting of desktops, laptops, and mobile devices; researching, testing, and evaluating new technology products and; developing new monitoring and administration tools to automate maintenance tasks; as well as involvement in firm-wide technology projects.

The ideal candidate will have a computer science or engineering degree, extensive knowledge of Windows and/or UNIX environments, some programming and scripting ability (perl, python, shell, etc.), as well as excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Successful candidates will get broad exposure to enterprise technologies and an opportunity to collaborate on large scale systems engineering projects.
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- 0 to 5 years of experience
- Experience in enterprise environments such as large finance firms, tech companies, or university IT labs
- Excellent communication skills both written and verbal are an absolute necessity
- GPA of 3.2 or higher and SAT verbal of 650 or greater
- Programming experience is a plus

We're Hiring: HIGH FREQUENCY EQUITY TRADER (Top Tier Prop Trading Firm, Chicago)

After Years of False Hopes, Signs of a Turn in Housing

After Years of False Hopes, Signs of a Turn in Housing

"The housing market is starting to recover. Prices are rising. Sales are increasing. Home builders are clearing lots and raising frames.

Joe Niece, a real estate agent in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, said he recently concluded a streak of 13 consecutive bidding wars over homes that his clients wanted to buy. Each sold above the asking price.

“I just had a home that wasn’t supposed to go on the market for two weeks sold before it even went on the market,” Mr. Niece said. “It’s definitely a lot different than what we saw” during the last few summers.

Like the economic recovery that began three years ago, what happens next is likely to prove a little disappointing. The pace of recovery will probably be slow, and the prices of many homes will continue to decline.

Millions of people remain underwater, owing more on their homes than the homes are worth, and unable to sell. Millions of families still face foreclosure. And a setback in the still-fragile economic recovery could easily reverse the uptick in housing prices, too."

Monday, July 2, 2012

Whistleblowers win $46.5 million in foreclosure settlement

The IPO Market Closed After Facebook. That's a Good Thing

The IPO Market Closed After Facebook. That's a Good Thing

In June, when Goldman Sachs (GS) banker Anthony Noto warned at the investment bank’s F.ounders conference recently that the initial public offering market was effectively going to be closed to Silicon Valley startups all summer, it shook up the Valley. This came on the heels of Y Combinator founder Paul Graham’s warning that the bad performance of Facebook’s (FB) IPO will hurt the funding market for earlier-stage startups.

Facebook IPO buyers deserved to lose

Facebook IPO buyers deserved to lose

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The outcry over the pounding that Facebook IPO investors took might lead you think this was an unusual event. You would be wrong. Initial public offerings, especially those preceded by lots of hype, have long histories of burning shareholders, who rarely understand their low odds of success.

This fact seems little understood, despite the vast amount of research that supports it. University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter, for example, has studied IPO performances for years. His findings suggest that IPO buyers are like rock climbers with frayed ropes. Examining 1,006 IPOs from 1988 to 1993, he found that the median IPO underperformed the Russell 3000 index of small-cap stocks by 30% during the three years after the offering. At the end of that period, 46% of the stocks were below their IPO price. Piper Jaffray, working for U.S. Bancorp, conducted a similar study, looking at 4,900 IPOs from May 1988 to July 1998. This 10-year period was great for the market: the S&P 500 gained 472%. But new IPOs didn’t keep pace. Fewer than one-third of the newly public businesses were trading above their IPO price by the decade’s end.

Some might assume that IPO winners easily offset the losers. There’s the story of Microsoft, up nearly 31,000% since its 1986 IPO. Then there’s Google which, according to Morningstar, has gained more than 400% since its 2004 public debut. But dreamers believing that blockbuster IPOs are the tickets to financial freedom need to examine the bigger picture.

Outsized IPO gains, according to Wharton Finance professor Jeremy Siegel, are rare. In a study covering 1968 to 2003, Siegel found that IPOs underperformed the small-cap stock index 29 out of 33 years. In his book The Future for Investors, he argues that “investing in IPOs is much akin to playing the lottery.” After tracking the performance of nearly 9,000 IPOs, he concluded that they’re a great deal for the investment banks that underwrite them but usually a terrible deal for regular investors.

This is a long-term trend. Siegel notes that 80% of IPOs during the period he studied underperformed the small-cap index since their IPO date. In fact, IPO investors lagged the S&P 500 by 2% to 3% per year. What’s more, the worst-performing initial public offerings tended to be those companies on which investors pinned the highest hopes.

The fact is, the world’s most profitable IPOs weren’t storybook stocks like Microsoft or Google, but dull businesses that didn’t open at silly prices. Fastenal, for example, provides building supplies. Since its 1987 IPO, which occurred a year after Microsoft’s, its shares have gained about 1,000% more than Bill Gates’s company.

Sexy stocks like Facebook are generally absent from lists of IPOs with the highest cumulative returns. Siegel compiled the 10 best-returning initial public offerings since 1968, measuring their overall stock and dividend gains to the end of 2000. The winners included Wal-Mart, St. Jude Medical, Mylan Labs and Limited Stores. The only tech company that made the cut was Intel. Popular businesses fetch expensive prices at IPO, which may please the founders and underwriters, but routinely leaves the little guy dangling."

In Caymans, It’s Simple to Fill a Hedge Fund Board

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Surprise: Stocks are having a strong year

"NEW YORK—For all the scary headlines -- a bailout of Spanish banks,JPMorgan's huge trading loss, the sputtering job market, Facebook's failed initial public offering -- it's a wonder stocks aren't down more this year.

Actually, stocks aren't down. That was a trick sentence. At the halfway mark for 2012, stocks are up more than 8 percent.

"People think we're down because memories are short," says Rex Macey, chief investment officer at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors. "It feels like the market's been worse than it actually has."

The year began with investors focusing on corporate America's record profits and scooping up stocks. The Standard & Poor's 500 index surged 12 percent from January through March.

It looked like that gain might be wiped out in the second quarter. Investors worried about Europe's inability to find a lasting solution to its debt crisis and about slower job growth in the United States.

Then came Friday: European leaders announced a broad strategy to funnel money into failing banks and keep borrowing costs down for governments, and stocks soared around the world.

It all left the S&P 500 up a healthy 8.3 percent for the year.

What happens next will probably depend on corporate earnings again. For April through June, they are expected to fall 0.7 percent from a year ago, according to S&P Capital IQ, a research firm. That would be the first drop in nearly three years.

So far, though, stocks in the U.S. are trouncing those in many countries. European markets are nearly all down this year, and several are down more than 10 percent. And many big emerging markets are struggling. China is down 1 percent, Russia 7 percent and Brazil 14 percent.

The backdrop is a darkening economic picture. China's economy is slowing, consumer confidence in the U.S. has sunk for four straight months, and a report next Friday is expected to show a fourth straight month of weak job growth.

As if that weren't bad enough, U.S. companies, from retailers to consumer goods makers to technology firms, are talking down investor expectations for how much they'll earn over the next several months, and that is sinking their stocks."

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Hutchin Hill Said To Exit Bets Against JPMorgan’s Whale

Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High, Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low

Home prices rise for first time in 7 months

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Home prices rose in April for the first time in seven months, though they are still near record lows, according to a report out Tuesday.

Average home prices increased 1.3% in April in 20 major markets, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. This comes after prices hit new post-bubble lows in March.

As of April, average home prices nationwide are back to where they were in early 2003. Prices are down 34% from their summer 2006 peak.

On an annual basis, prices are down 1.9%, though that's an improvement over March's decline. Ten cities -- Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Tampa and Washington D.C. -- had positive annual returns. (Where home prices are rising for the wrong reasons)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Artur Fischer: Debt Crisis Will Make Euro Stronger (VIDEO)

Monday, June 25, 2012

Banks Now Getting In Big Into Patent Deals

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Mitt and the junk bond king Michael Milken

Mitt and the junk bond king Michael Milken

It was at the height of the 1980s buyout boom when Mitt Romney went in search of $300 million to finance one of the most lucrative deals he would ever manage. The man who would help provide the money was none other than the famed junk-bond king Michael Milken.