My million dollars

[Kaypo]

At this point in time, I think the safest place is to put all my cash under my pillow. At least I can count them every night before I sleep.  Seriously, the key word is "diversity". I'll grab some good blue chips, govt bonds and put some in the banks.  Well, any deposit below 20k is guaranteed. Why take high risks when banks and insurance companies are falling down? Who knows which company is going under tomorrow?  As long as I don't put all my eggs in one basket, I've minimized my risks. Not that I have anything against financial advisors or property agents but I won't seek their advice for obvious reasons > 

[Ambrose Again]

SocGen issues China alert as fears mount on banks
Société Générale has advised clients to dump shares of banks exposed to the Far East.
 
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 10:35PM BST 23 Sep 2008
Previous1 of 2 ImagesNext

SocGen warns China will suffer a deep slump Photo: Reuters
"The collapse of emerging market economies will shake investors to the core. The great unwind has only just begun," said Albert Edwards, the bank's global strategist.
"The big surprise in store is what could happen in China. The potential for a deep recession in the US is already on the radar screen, but people will be stunned if China's economy contracts, as I believe it will. Investors could be massively caught out," he said.
"The consensus has a touching belief that emerging markets will prove resilient despite a deep downturn in developed economies. My view is that an outright contraction in global GDP is entirely possible next year."
"The emerging market boom is totally tied up with a decade of ballooning current account deficits in the US. Put that into reverse and you'll be surprised what pops out of the woodwork."
Mr Edwards said the vast accumulation of foreign exchange reserves – led by China with $1.8 trillion – had provided the "rocket fuel" of liquidity for frontier markets. This virtuous circle has now turned vicious as America tightens its belt. Countries in Asia and Latin America are intervening to prop up their currencies, causing reserves to fall.
"We could see monthly trade surpluses in the US within a year. The emerging market liquidity squeeze will intensify ferociously, and assets linked to the region will become toxic waste. That includes previously resilient banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and Banco Santander," he said.
The gloomy forecast comes as Fitch Ratings warns of mounting distress for banks in China, where debt has been shunted off books to circumvent state limits on credit growth.
The pattern looks eerily like the use of "conduits" by Western banks at the height of the credit bubble.
The agency's China team, Charlene Chu and Chunling Wen, said banks had used an "underground market" on a large scale to stoke up lending. "These types of credit and/or institutions fall outside the traditional structures of financial supervision, exposing banks to a growing amount of risk that is for the most part hidden By getting a portion of their credit off books, Chinese banks are able to comply with official loan quotas while in practice exceeding them," he said.
Under the mechanism, the loans are packaged into wealth products and sold to investors searching for bumper yields. The parallel with the US sub-prime debacle is striking, although Fitch avoids an explicit parallel.
Moreover, the banks issue "entrusted loans" in which they act as piggy-in-the-middle between two sets of clients, keeping the credits of the portfolio sheet. These loans have reached 1.5 trillion yuan ($220bn).
Even without such off-books liabilities, the banks are facing a crunch as the economy slows hard and the property market stalls. Shenzen house prices are already down 30pc.
"The Chinese banking system is nearing the point at which it can no longer sustain additional large net withdrawals of liquidity without generating further strains on banks' ability to lend," it said.
Morgan Stanley said this month that China's housing market was heading for a "melt-down". Data is patchy and rarely reliable, but it is clear that home sales in Beijing, Shanghai and other Eastern cities have fallen drastically over the summer.

[F1]

Go to Singapore Pools and put it all on Lewis Hamilton to qualify in pole position.

A bit more than 10% guaranteed.   

[Flyer]

Buy your own Singapore Flyer and make sure it turns in the correct direction. Heaps and heaps of money...guaranteed!

[Derivater]

Yup the derivative market is a worry too and the banks don't kbow whats next. Standard Chartered is agressively hiring a pile of auditors in the UK to send them here and review their derivative business. I don't know if the Fed has been pushing but if one of the smaller banks like Standard starts defaulting then it will have a catastrophic domino effect on the rest of the banking and corporate world. Basically the world will stop spinning.

[Auditor]

Its not JPM ? Apparently they recently had a few compliance issues with the Fed asking tickly questions. Some trades are not going through the books and are only being monitored by emails and those in the know. A bit like the SG scandal.

[struggle to believe this]

Its not JPM ? Apparently they recently had a few compliance issues with the Fed asking tickly questions. Some trades are not going through the books and are only being monitored by emails and those in the know. A bit like the SG scandal.

I dont think you work for a bank.  That is basically not possible.  Manipulation of back office, yes.  Not tell them, how the hell will the trades settle, you will be caught almost immediately.  It's hardly like they can hang on 6 months for the bonus.

A source would be useful but basically this post is bogus.

[john grahm]

I suggest you place your money in the following investments:
1. Gold
2. Oil
3. Agricultural commodities
4. Chinese stock market ETF

This investment mix will make you rich over the next 10 years. Avoid stocks and bonds. And avoid real estate, for Christ's sake. We just had the biggest real estate bubble in history go pop and it will be YEARS before we recover.  

After those 10 years transfer out of the above and go HEAVY into stocks. It will be the beginning of a major bull market.

Good luck.

[wrong]

Gold and Oil are too volatile.

Commodities are on the way down big time and have dropped 20-30% in the last month.

Chinese stock market has lost 60% since its peak.

CASH IS KING !

[john grahm]

Cash is king? The US dollar has lost 30% of its value, and it will get even worse as time progresses.  The euro is an unstable currency, with so many different nations pushing and pulling it in different directions. For example, Ireland proposed a massive bailouts for its banks that all other EU members oppose because it would surely devastate the Euro's value.

Fiat currency is not king. Gold is king. The gold standard was overthrown just 80 years ago after thousands of years of use. In that time, the German Papiermark currency has become useless, as has the Yugoslav Dinar, as well as the Ukrainian karbovanets. If you had your money stored in these fiat currencies, congratulations, you would be a broke man today. But if it was in gold, you would still have your wealth.

Fiat currency is the making of governments that want to be able to continually run budget deficits and dilute their debts by creating inflation. With fiat money, you are trusting that the government will do the right thing, but time has shown that the government is not to be trusted with your wealth.

[Auditor]

Its not JPM ? Apparently they recently had a few compliance issues with the Fed asking tickly questions. Some trades are not going through the books and are only being monitored by emails and those in the know. A bit like the SG scandal.

I dont think you work for a bank.  That is basically not possible.  Manipulation of back office, yes.  Not tell them, how the hell will the trades settle, you will be caught almost immediately.  It's hardly like they can hang on 6 months for the bonus.

A source would be useful but basically this post is bogus.

Maybe you should have read the previous posts a bit more thoroughly. These are deriavtive deals.....no settlement for these particular deals until maturity or valuation which can be in 6 months or 6 years. With zero premium or premium paid at a later date again nothing to settle.  Been in financce long enough to see how the systems ar manipulated.

[investorsg]

Cash is king? The US dollar has lost 30% of its value, and it will get even worse as time progresses.  The euro is an unstable currency, with so many different nations pushing and pulling it in different directions. For example, Ireland proposed a massive bailouts for its banks that all other EU members oppose because it would surely devastate the Euro's value.

Fiat currency is not king. Gold is king. The gold standard was overthrown just 80 years ago after thousands of years of use. In that time, the German Papiermark currency has become useless, as has the Yugoslav Dinar, as well as the Ukrainian karbovanets. If you had your money stored in these fiat currencies, congratulations, you would be a broke man today. But if it was in gold, you would still have your wealth.

Fiat currency is the making of governments that want to be able to continually run budget deficits and dilute their debts by creating inflation. With fiat money, you are trusting that the government will do the right thing, but time has shown that the government is not to be trusted with your wealth.

Cash is king? The US dollar has lost 30% of its value, and it will get even worse as time progresses.  The euro is an unstable currency, with so many different nations pushing and pulling it in different directions. For example, Ireland proposed a massive bailouts for its banks that all other EU members oppose because it would surely devastate the Euro's value.

Fiat currency is not king. Gold is king. The gold standard was overthrown just 80 years ago after thousands of years of use. In that time, the German Papiermark currency has become useless, as has the Yugoslav Dinar, as well as the Ukrainian karbovanets. If you had your money stored in these fiat currencies, congratulations, you would be a broke man today. But if it was in gold, you would still have your wealth.

Fiat currency is the making of governments that want to be able to continually run budget deficits and dilute their debts by creating inflation. With fiat money, you are trusting that the government will do the right thing, but time has shown that the government is not to be trusted with your wealth.

Yes this is true.. many people dont realize the importance of hedging their wealth..
buying PHYSICAL Gold or Silver (not those gold/silver paper asset) is one of the best way to hedge against your wealth being depleted due to the worst performance of fiat money of paper asset like stocks n bonds..

actually other Hard assets that DO NOT correlate with finance or stock markets are also good..

namely.. fine wine investments.. those french boredeaux wines which are considered the blue chip class...

farm land investments.. with the growing needs of real agriculture and commodties supply.. invest in farm land has a strong hedge value.. those countries with vast amount of good quality soil like in malaysia, indonesia, thailand.. these are perfect.. Marc Faber the chairman of faber limited he moved to thailand.. and as far as i know he's into farmland investments now..

also to certain extent.. fine art investments.. paintings.. sculptures.. its hard to spot which is good quality compared to fine wine... but it is considered a good way to hedge your wealth nonetheless..