optfund.com Blog

In case you have been living under a rock trapped inside of a rock surrounded by rock, here is a collection of some of Bear-mobiia

I am sure that given enough time one could poke humor at the demise all day long. My concern is with the employees, especially those who I am sure were simply overruled while doing their job of actualy identifying the risks involved with the types of securities that ultimately became illiquid and made Bear insolvent. All of those 80 hour weeks in the name of the firm are now vaporized, and the firm is a laughing stock of the street, wall and main.

But just as some celebrate the virtual demise of the firm, many are sparing a thought for friends who work at Bear and have just seen their investments in the company all but wiped out. Employees own about a third of Bear Stearns, which means the company’s plight has bled its roughly 14,000 workers’ portfolios by $3 billion this month alone and more than $5 billion this year.

An employee who acquired Bear’s stock anytime from 2004 through 2007 stands to lose at least 97 percent of his investment if this deal closes.

(source:Analysts: Bear got just deserts, but workers pay price)

Or maybe was it the fact that the modeling scenarios utilized never accounted for the fact that these types of secuities would indeed becone non-saleable, thereby rendering the securities worthless. Could it have been that no one could have seen it coming? Or further, was it an example of the companies’ holding out until the securities could find a bid in the marketplace? Remember, the value of the firm was deterimed due to forced liquidation, hence the initially ridiculous bid of $2 a share that valued Bear at less than Alex Rodriguez for 10 years.

Better still was it an example of sharks swirling around the wounded animal…way back when in 1998 LTCM went with hat in hand collecting for bailout funds…the sole refute was Bear Stearns. Elephants, especially those that roam these Walled Streets, do not forget. Bear Stearns’ fate may have resulted from its own karma.

Dude…I dont know. I am speculating, and you know what it is fun to speculate. Whatever you want to call it…a great firm is gone. An institution is made marketly better, and its brand has been solidified in a similar fashion to the 1907 panic.

1907 panic