“Numbers abound about what the failure rate is. Some say 95 percent. Others claim 80. We had a college student fly across the country to visit us who was writing his college thesis on this very subject. He came in at 90 percent. At a big bank the whisper number is 55 percent. I had dinner last night with a close friend that relayed the head trader at a Tier I investment house was bemoaning the worst part of his job- letting failed traders go.

These numbers above include far too many people who should have never tried. There are too many bad acting firms who promise early riches preying on the monetarily ambitious, who have no passion for trading. These noobs are merely hunting for the next big game in our economy. And these pikers get included in the failure data. The market spits out these miscasts. And so the failure rate may be high, but really is not relevant to those who deserve an opportunity.”

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Nokia (NOK) securities fraud lawsuit

“ At the end of 2009, John Burbank’s hedge fund Passport Capital took possession of their physical gold investment. It is kept in custody in Zurich with UBS and represents a 1% allocation in Passport Global. What’s interesting here is that Passport also notes that they intend to increase their exposure via physical gold and that they are unlikely to buy various proxies for gold (i.e. exchange traded fund GLD).

Passport has published a white paper on their rationale for owning physical gold. In it, they examine the supply/demand dynamic, the impact of central bank action on gold, as well as the implications of owning “paper” gold versus physical. This is not the first time we’ve seen specific research published by the firm, as we covered their previous case for agriculture as well.”

Read more: http://www.marketfolly.com/2010/01/passport-capitals-rationale-for-owning.html#ixzz0eEHF9syd