interesting snippet on bonuses from bill cara (
http://www.billcara.com/archives/200...aders_hav.html)
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December 11, 2005
Why traders have to focus on prices, Sun., Dec. 11, 2005, 1:59 PM
In 2H99, as the Great Bear Market was organizing, I pointed out in my market letter at the time that in a couple hours one day the personal wealth of Bill Gates grew by more than the annual GDP of Portugal. Now Portugal, as many of you know, is an enormous country.
Well, General Motors is an enormous company – 320,000 employees, 860,000 shareholders. And in just four days this week, Intel dropped in market cap more than one General Motors, which you missed because Wall Street had you looking in the wrong direction.
Wall Street profit bonuses to staff will aggregate $24 billion this year. They say it’s because they have done such a wonderful job for you. Actually, the Dow 30 Industrials Average is lower today than its close Dec-31-04 (10,783). The average mutual fund and the average hedge fund has done squat for 2005 as the year comes to a close.
But they take their $24 billion in bonuses this year-end because Humungous Bank & Broker earned it – one client at a time. So when the market is flat, and they make enough to pay themselves $24 billion in bonuses, who lost, do you think?
I think the answer is obvious --- one client at a time.
And when the market in INTC took a $14 billion hit in four days this week, who do you think earned it? I’ll tell you; it was the people who were running to CNBC to dazzle you with their stories.
And you were too busy to see what was going on right under your nose.
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