UK

https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/chinas-home-price-slump-deepens-july-new-9-year-low-2024-08-15/

"Why did Facebook stop Libra? They said they wanted to revolutionize the global financial system. The project ran in to fierce opposition from policymakers alarmed that Libra could give Facebook too much control over the money system, and infringe on users' privacy"

Thanks!

https://www.reuters.com/markets/summer-market-shock-not-quite-over-investors-brace-more-turmoil-2024-08-15/ "Money managers' risk mandates tend to prevent them from buying equities when prices are fluctuating widely."

Which Bitcoin ETF is the best? IBIT? And what would be the most important pros and cons of owning BTC via ETF? Thanks!

"The Åland Islands, or Åland, is an autonomous region of Finland"

https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/nord-stream-pipeline-explosion-real-story-da24839c

I have made some...betting against MW this year/recently:)

https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/weight-loss-drugs-ozempic-wegovy-side-effects-sex-0210c42b?mod=hp_trending_now_article_pos2 This is getting really serious!:)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-07/china-urges-officials-to-stop-playing-throwing-eggs-card-game

https://www.yahoo.com/news/watch-russian-drives-past-trail-114519189.html

Finished watching GoT. Great show, I think easily could be in my top 5 favourites. Greatest take away: chaos is a ladder, but do not overplay this, or you can get your throat cut:)))

https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/dimon-buffett-recession-stocks-what-to-know-today-5d6803b5 “I was with Warren Buffett yesterday,” Dimon said in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday. “And we always talk about the resiliency of America. It is extraordinary.”

Perhaps I am getting a little bit to excited / to early excited (maybe because also of this general market volatility), but I sold some extra shares I bought during MW attack, earlier, mainly only because of the position size (which still remains and will continue to be very large in any case) and now already thinking about buying them back. But perhaps I also should wait for some weather event to do this. Most likelly this is just a silly, immaterial and unnecessary trading, because of some more free time in a summer:)

https://www.ft.com/content/80abe7c0-e722-4224-8bf2-77bacab195f5 The head of Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer, expects the benign conditions that have powered record profits for the industry, but increased costs for businesses and households, to be sustained in coming months. Munich Re was one of a string of companies to report bumper profits on Thursday, helped by a steep increase in the cost of both insuring and reinsuring properties against natural catastrophes in recent years. This has fed through to more expensive cover for consumers and businesses, contributing to an affordability crisis in some parts of the world. The boom in profits had led to expectations that prices would begin to fall as new providers were drawn to the market. But Munich Re chief executive Joachim Wenning said on Thursday that he does not anticipate any “softening” in the reinsurance market ahead of the key policy renewals that happen at the end of the year, of which property catastrophe cover is a major part. “We are very confident that the market environment . . . will be unchanged, meaning highly attractive,” he said. Munich Re, a heavyweight in the property catastrophe reinsurance market, reported a record €3.8bn of post-tax profits in the first half, helped also by a strong performance from other areas. Beazley and Lancashire, two Lloyd’s of London firms that offer property insurance and reinsurance, alongside other types of cover, also made record profits. Executives argue that the reinsurance sector is still playing catch-up after years of underwriting losses before prices began to pick up in 2022. Reinsurers “have to earn now what they couldn’t earn for so long,” Wenning said. Reinsurers have also recently benefited from a quieter period for major disasters such as hurricanes, and by tightening their policies to reduce their exposure to events such as storms and floods. Those events have weighed more on mass-market home insurers, particularly in the US where many state regulators cap pricing for local providers. London-listed Beazley reported pre-tax profits doubled to a record $729mn in the first half, lifted by a strong underwriting performance and higher returns on its investment portfolio. Its combined ratio — a measure of claims and expenses as a proportion of premiums — improved from 88 per cent to 81 per cent. Beazley said it would probably hit around 80 per cent for the full year, sending its shares up 11 per cent in London. Chief executive Adrian Cox said the performance was a mixture of good risk selection and higher prices. The property reinsurance segment was likely to soften first, given that insurers have paid out significant claims for extreme weather, he said. “There are lots of losses [for insurers]. It might get a bit more competitive but I think it’ll be less so than the reinsurance,” Cox said. Lancashire’s post-tax profits, also published on Thursday, were up a quarter from the prior period to $201mn in the first half. Chief executive Alex Maloney said he expected any softening in the property insurance market to be gradual. “You don’t go from a great market to a terrible market in a year,” he said. “It never happens that way.”

I am not sure I understood situation correctly then or understand it today, but what IB did back in February, they basically said, that if you own concentrated position in FFH, then the whole top 3 concentrated positions is eliminated from margin calculation, which is kind of interesting, especially if you own only a few positions in an account: "The aggregate projected loss of the top three concentrated stocks (and their derivatives) will be compared to what would otherwise be the aggregate portfolio margin requirement, and the greater of the two will be the margin requirement for the portfolio." So great margin rates by IB, but not so great / strange margin requirements and especially penalising if you own big position in FFH? I have no idea why this makes sense, since at the same time they would let you margin favourably some shitty smallcap in the other side of the world, yet not FFH, but perhaps this is done automatically according to some of their rules (attacked by shortsellers=no margin?).

I really have no idea, but if I had to vote for a one possible explanation, gun to my head, I would go with some kind of distressed / irregular selling because of this "global margin call", as Goldman called it:)

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/08/08/why-warren-buffett-has-built-a-mighty-cash-mountain Again, nothing really new, except maybe for a nice illustration:)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-08-07/ozempic-boom-inside-usa-s-weight-loss-drug-capital?srnd=homepage-europe

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-08/jpmorgan-says-three-quarters-of-global-carry-trades-now-unwound https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-07/fast-money-quants-are-hammered-after-everything-went-wrong

Maybe Carvana could, using its shares:)

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-hot-oceans-hurricane-data/ This does not explain FFH vs other insurance stocks though...

So another quarterly profit sized amount as with Sleep? And why should this be necessarily perceived as bad from the start?

:)))

First two makes no sense to me and not even a news of the last week? But what do I know:). Third could be the real thing, as maybe also fears of the hurrucane season would, but other insurance stocks not going down as much (or at all). So this is either some noise, perhaps also low volume related or maybe there is a chance we could see a new "update" from MW, but why whould they not did this during silent period then? Maybe were busy deleting old tweets...It is tempting to buy some additional shares near BV:)