Hedging Sterling

[sunnysan]

Question to all CUK.

Since you are all contractors and more than likely have diversified from pure property holding to bank accounts with fat wedges of sterling, here is a question?

Would you consider hedging against a possible Sterling devaluation by either by buying FX or shares etc.

Has anybody thought about this and what are they doing about it.

[ChimpMaster]

SLVR
PHAG
SUGA
CORN
etc.

[Dow Jones]

Tell tale signs

Watch out for Darling selling large quantities of gold from the BoE reserves - pretty much what his 'mentor' did when he took over as Chancellor! Gold is always handy in times of crisis. Ask any Swiss bank, they know best.

[AtW]

Ask any Swiss bank, they know best.

Isn't UBS that just wrote down $10 bln of subprime junk is a Swiss bank?

[Dow Jones]

Expert

Not at all - it's not junk and it's not sub-prime either. As an expert yourself, you should know what it was.

[AtW]

Not at all - it's not junk and it's not sub-prime either. As an expert yourself, you should know what it was.

UBS to Sell Stakes After $10 Billion in Writedowns (Update5)

By Elena Logutenkova
Enlarge Image/Details

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG will write down U.S. subprime mortgage investments by $10 billion, the biggest such loss by a European bank, and replenish capital by selling stakes to investors in Singapore and the Middle East.

Europe's largest bank by assets plans to raise 13 billion Swiss francs ($11.5 billion) selling bonds that will convert into shares to Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and an unidentified Middle Eastern investor, Chairman Marcel Ospel said on a conference call with reporters today.

UBS scrapped a forecast for a fourth-quarter profit and may post its first full-year loss since the Zurich-based company was created through a merger a decade ago. The collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market has led to about $76 billion of losses and markdowns at securities firms and banks this year. UBS rose as much as 3.3 percent in Zurich trading after the company followed Citigroup Inc., the largest U.S. bank, in taking on strategic investors to bolster capital.

More: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...ZqU&refer=home

I think this pretty much sums up who is expert here and who smells of threaded.

[wendigo100]

Watch out for Darling selling large quantities of gold from the BoE reserves - pretty much what his 'mentor' did when he took over as Chancellor!

Nah, the price is far too high this time.

(I don't know why I'm laughing - these jokers are in charge of our economy!)

[Dow Jones]

Lesson in securities

UBS to Sell Stakes After $10 Billion in Writedowns
By Elena Logutenkova (ANOTHER EXPERT)

I haven't got all day to explain to you how it works, but basically banks buy a package of AA/AB/etc-rated securitised loans. If they turn out to be junk, it's no more the banks' fault apart from a risk-averse strategy (more likely to do with the rating agencies) than if you bought dollars and found out they were worth a fraction of the value that you paid (as it so often happens).

Judging by your other threads about the markets etc, apart from your complete lack of investment banking knowledge, you are generally not a born optimist, are you? Glass always half-empty for you?

[AtW]

If they turn out to be junk, it's no more the banks' fault

You are the kind of "expert" that fits in nicely around here

[AtW]

Judging by your other threads about the markets etc, apart from your complete lack of investment banking knowledge, you are generally not a born optimist, are you? Glass always half-full for you?

You are new here, so I will short time to explain you how these financial things work: usual safe bank activities do not make enough money to justify huge bonuses paid to the City boys. So, they invent all sort of financial games which can be summed up as passing around buckets of sh1t, those that hold those buckets for longer get more money, this is the incentive. Also in this game there is a loud bell - when it tolls all movements stops and those guys who happened to have too much sh1t on their hands (the greediest ones) get totally stuffed. Or more precisely they don't get their bonuses, but shareholders, taxpayers get stuffed totally.

My view of the financial world might not be optimistic, but it is realistic.