You buy your sister a $100 general-purpose gift card. It's for her birthday, but it might be the bank that has reason to celebrate.Despite your good intentions, such gift cards often come with a tang

The Greek SystemBeing an options trader can sometimes feel like belonging to a fraternity; some gravitate toward the academic minded, some are athletically oriented, and some of us just go all-out An

Risky assets remained in favor during the past week, generally helped along by fairly robust economic data and better-than-expected corporate earnings reports. A number of bourses, crude oil, inflati

The Dow broke above 10,000 last week, news that may have buoyed the spirits of cable news producers but meant zilch for the rest of us.In fact, this is the 26th time the Dow pierced the 10,000 milest

If technology stocks led the market higher and the semiconductors lead tech, what can we read into... Altera (ALTR) recently raised guidance and the stock was flat. Diod

Do TV anchors have to be heavy? If a handful of accountants could topple the global financial machination, how durable can that structure possibly be? Yo

The phrase "short squeeze" is being tossed around a lot these days and a few folks have offered that the action off the March lows has been a function of that paper chase.My initial reactio

It’s hard to be unimpressed with the stock market action. After deep double-digit declines to start the year, the tape snapped back with furious vengeance that caught even the most ardent optim

Editor's Note: The following was posted in real time on our premium Buzz & Banter (click for a free trial). It's being shared here for the benefit of the Minyanville community.Gate Sniffage!!! -

Telltale traits of a Ponzi schemer:1. Unusually steady returns despite the market’s ups and downs.2.  “Improbable, if not impossible” returns (the SEC’s words) from thumb