Shoutout to Matt Levine Forum

[motojir]

...

If you want actual insight, facts you didn't know before, seekinalpha.com is the best place I have found so far. Most of the articles there are bad too, but sometimes the authors do actual diligence and dig up useful information.

I didn't say their editor's choice was filled with gold. Still, the stuff you posted is presumably (I didn't read your quoted parts. there are dozens of articles on sa) better than Levine spending paragraphs on how COIN was reserved by NASDAQ, and that's why Coinbase listed there. Who cares?

Edit: The article you excerpted from says a 27% dilution in COIN stock is in the offing, something to do with transactions in class A/B shares and exec complans. I didn't dig into his analysis, doing other stuff and don't care enough to dig in, but I think that was the most important part of that article that you should have excerpted. Is he right? I don't know. Maybe it's solid diligence. Maybe it's not. But SA gives you the best chance of finding diligence.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/441919 ... buy-crypto

[beepboopbeep]

Still, the stuff you posted is presumably (I didn't read your quoted parts. there are dozens of articles on sa) better than Levine spending paragraphs on how COIN was reserved by NASDAQ, and that's why Coinbase listed there. Who cares?

I do, because I'm reading it to be entertained rather than to day-trade? Like, that's the entire purpose of the newsletter? Not to give you """"alpha"""""""" or the "high-quality diligence" that you're (rather dubiously) looking for from seeking alpha dot com? What about this situation is hard to grok

[Contango]

I don't know his deal...

It's good that you've started out with a dose of candor because your post goes off the rails from this point onward. Bloomberg's news and opinion arm has sought to generate revenue from readers by requiring a subscription for most content for the past three years or so (though you can get Money Stuff for free via email). However, it's clear that Bloomberg funnels some revenue from its data services business into the news/editorial arm. So, to some degree the many terminal users who read Levine's column every day subsidize it.

If you want actual insight, facts you didn't know before, seekinalpha.com is the best place I have found so far.

Levine's column is commentary. He's not offering due diligence; he doesn't purport to provide trading ideas for you to use in your Robinhood account. If you think, "this column sucks, I can get way better stock picking tips at Wall Street Bets," Money Stuff isn't for you.

Last March, [Bill Ackman] gave the ultimate "sky is falling" interview as he secretly shorted the market. The market fell significantly as a result of his interview, putting money in his pocket at other people's expense, and CNBC was railed for allowing that. If 90% of finance articles are unhelpful and written only for pennies per click, 9% of them are written by super rich people trying to move the market in their favor at other people's expense. If Ackman wants you to read Levine, then it's probably because he wants you occupied with bs rather than learning useful information.

This conspiratorial rant really gets to the heart of the matter. Levine writes for an audience of financial professionals, who are steeped in a distinct and somewhat insular culture. I spent my first several years out of undergrad at an IB and doing buy-side debt investing, and I can attest to the fact that within that world, he is both widely read and highly regarded. That influential fund managers would go on the record to the N.Y. Times for some throwaway personal-interest piece merely underscores the depth of Levine's influence among those who work on the street. And this point is totally independent of the negative esteem in which you hold these people because they are objectively influential in finance. To the OP's original point, if you are a law student without a background working in finance and you're going to work as a white-shoe corporate lawyer, reading Money Stuff might be the best way to become fluent in the language of finance so that you can speak to your future clients in a way that lets them know you're in on the joke.

If, on the other hand, you are the kind of person sympathetic to a view of the markets (I suppose the world, really) in which a hedge fund manager can go on CNBC and singlehandedly crash the Dow (thereby enriching himself at "other people's expense"), or if you wholeheartedly agree with Matt Taibbi's characterization of Goldman Sachs as a "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity," then you will probably not like Levine or his column.

[motojir]

This conspiratorial rant really gets to the heart of the matter. . . .
If, on the other hand, you are the kind of person sympathetic to a view of the markets (I suppose the world, really) in which a hedge fund manager can go on CNBC and singlehandedly crash the Dow (thereby enriching himself at "other people's expense") . . .

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/25/bill-ac ... ilton.html

[Contango]

I'm hesitant to take this thread further afield. This is all beside the point, and I'm not going to change your opinion. But, alas, I can't resist.

The DJIA closed at at $29,551.42 on February 12, 2020. It reached a subsequent low when it closed at $18,591.93 on March 23, 2020 before beginning a now year-long rebound. Ackman spoke on CNBC on the afternoon of March 18, 2020. The DJIA closed at $21,237.38 on March 17, 2020, the day before the TV appearance in question. Equities broadly had been trending down dating back to around the third week of February. So, we can start by noting that the DJIA had lost 76% of everything it was going to lose before Ackman made the remarks that supposedly "caused" the market sell off (it was actually more like 85% looking at the intraday position right before Ackman came on the air).

Moreover, the Dow was already down 1,000 points on the day before the interview began*. So what market sell off are we talking about here? Could Ackman have exacerbated the carnage on March 18th? I can grant you that much for the sake of argument. But properly contextualized as merely one day in a weeks-long slide driven by macro fears about the economic impact of a once-in-a-century pandemic, I'm pretty comfortable with my characterization of your remarks. And it can be simultaneously true that (i) Ackman's remarks were irresponsible, and (ii) they did not significantly contribute to the profit his firm took on a short position that was put on in February and had already been half unwound by the time he made the remarks.**
_____________________________________________
* I'll even cite to an opinion piece agreeing with your, frankly wild, perspective. https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... e-him-26bn

As he spoke, the Dow Jones industrial average index, which was already down 1,000 points that day, collapsed further, triggering “circuit breakers” designed to halt extreme turmoil, and the market closed for 15 minutes. When it reopened, it was down more than 2,000 points.

** From reporting by the FT, which if you don't like Levine you might not like either. https://www.ft.com/content/70a5566c-5c0 ... b0001f2f29

*** Much like Matt Levine, I love footnotes.

[Sackboy]

motojir is a troll who pumps out bad takes. Don't feed him. Half of his other 50 posts have been spent pitching the line that the hardest legal specialties get paid the most.

[Contango]

motojir is a troll who pumps out bad takes. Don't feed him. Half of his other 50 posts have been spent pitching the line that the hardest legal specialties get paid the most.

After submitting my most recent reply, I went and read the "Hardest Practice Area" thread. I see that I have opened a can of worms. . .

[motojir]

motojir is a troll who pumps out bad takes. Don't feed him. Half of his other 50 posts have been spent pitching the line that the hardest legal specialties get paid the most.

You're the guy who claims you could easily make $10 mil in PI because it's notoriously simple, but choose not to, and I'm the troll posting bad takes. OK.

[Sackboy]

motojir is a troll who pumps out bad takes. Don't feed him. Half of his other 50 posts have been spent pitching the line that the hardest legal specialties get paid the most.

You're the guy who claims you could easily make $10 mil in PI because it's notoriously simple, but choose not to, and I'm the troll posting bad takes. OK.

I appreciate you stopping by to prove my point.

[sms18]

Lol I was gonna spring to Matt's defense but Beep's got it covered. Been reading him since Dealbreaker- always interesting and humorous. Some great deep cuts:

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/05/the-tal ... -of-a-fail

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/04/marvel- ... -to-itself

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... nd-options (first section is one of my favorite, most oblique post-Trump election takes ever)

https://www.thebillfold.com/2012/07/how ... oes-money/

Levine's ongoing series on legal realism (who really controls the corporation - the shareholders? the directors? or the janitor that has the keys?) is quite fantastic. Some other ongoing "series" that have been great over the years are: "private market is the new public market," "index funds and marxism," and "Oh, Elon."

[Necho2]

Lol I was gonna spring to Matt's defense but Beep's got it covered. Been reading him since Dealbreaker- always interesting and humorous. Some great deep cuts:

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/05/the-tal ... -of-a-fail

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/04/marvel- ... -to-itself

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... nd-options (first section is one of my favorite, most oblique post-Trump election takes ever)

https://www.thebillfold.com/2012/07/how ... oes-money/

Levine's ongoing series on legal realism (who really controls the corporation - the shareholders? the directors? or the janitor that has the keys?) is quite fantastic. Some other ongoing "series" that have been great over the years are: "private market is the new public market," "index funds and marxism," and "Oh, Elon."

Don't forget the OG- "People are worried about bond market liquidity"!

[albinododobird]

Lol I was gonna spring to Matt's defense but Beep's got it covered. Been reading him since Dealbreaker- always interesting and humorous. Some great deep cuts:

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/05/the-tal ... -of-a-fail

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/04/marvel- ... -to-itself

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... nd-options (first section is one of my favorite, most oblique post-Trump election takes ever)

https://www.thebillfold.com/2012/07/how ... oes-money/

Levine's ongoing series on legal realism (who really controls the corporation - the shareholders? the directors? or the janitor that has the keys?) is quite fantastic. Some other ongoing "series" that have been great over the years are: "private market is the new public market," "index funds and marxism," and "Oh, Elon."

Don't forget the OG- "People are worried about bond market liquidity"!

Surprised not to see "everything is securities fraud" in this list.

[cheaptilts]

Lol I was gonna spring to Matt's defense but Beep's got it covered. Been reading him since Dealbreaker- always interesting and humorous. Some great deep cuts:

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/05/the-tal ... -of-a-fail

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/04/marvel- ... -to-itself

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... nd-options (first section is one of my favorite, most oblique post-Trump election takes ever)

https://www.thebillfold.com/2012/07/how ... oes-money/

Levine's ongoing series on legal realism (who really controls the corporation - the shareholders? the directors? or the janitor that has the keys?) is quite fantastic. Some other ongoing "series" that have been great over the years are: "private market is the new public market," "index funds and marxism," and "Oh, Elon."

Don't forget the OG- "People are worried about bond market liquidity"!

Surprised not to see "everything is securities fraud" in this list.

Yes. That’s the best one.

[baskeet]

Lol I was gonna spring to Matt's defense but Beep's got it covered. Been reading him since Dealbreaker- always interesting and humorous. Some great deep cuts:

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/05/the-tal ... -of-a-fail

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/04/marvel- ... -to-itself

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... nd-options (first section is one of my favorite, most oblique post-Trump election takes ever)

https://www.thebillfold.com/2012/07/how ... oes-money/

Levine's ongoing series on legal realism (who really controls the corporation - the shareholders? the directors? or the janitor that has the keys?) is quite fantastic. Some other ongoing "series" that have been great over the years are: "private market is the new public market," "index funds and marxism," and "Oh, Elon."

Don't forget the OG- "People are worried about bond market liquidity"!

Surprised not to see "everything is securities fraud" in this list.

Yes. That’s the best one.

He doesn't do this as frequently as he did in 2018 but blockchain blockchain blockchain blockchain.

[Contango]

He doesn't do this as frequently as he did in 2018 but blockchain blockchain blockchain blockchain.

https://twitter.com/sarahsholder/status ... 4799895554

[sms18]

Lol I was gonna spring to Matt's defense but Beep's got it covered. Been reading him since Dealbreaker- always interesting and humorous. Some great deep cuts:

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/05/the-tal ... -of-a-fail

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/04/marvel- ... -to-itself

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... nd-options (first section is one of my favorite, most oblique post-Trump election takes ever)

https://www.thebillfold.com/2012/07/how ... oes-money/

Levine's ongoing series on legal realism (who really controls the corporation - the shareholders? the directors? or the janitor that has the keys?) is quite fantastic. Some other ongoing "series" that have been great over the years are: "private market is the new public market," "index funds and marxism," and "Oh, Elon."

Don't forget the OG- "People are worried about bond market liquidity"!

Surprised not to see "everything is securities fraud" in this list.

Yes. That’s the best one.

He doesn't do this as frequently as he did in 2018 but blockchain blockchain blockchain blockchain.

That's sort of being replaced by "SPACSPACSPAC"

[soft blue]

Does anyone else who actually likes Levine feel like he fell off a bit? I remember the ~2017 era Levine stuff having both a wider range of topics and generally feeling more interesting. Not sure if it's rose colored glasses or not, though.

[cfcm]

Does anyone else who actually likes Levine feel like he fell off a bit? I remember the ~2017 era Levine stuff having both a wider range of topics and generally feeling more interesting. Not sure if it's rose colored glasses or not, though.

I don’t know about fell off, but yes I definitely miss his longer pieces that he used to do in addition to the newsletter. Although the newsletter has gotten longer to compensate, I think.

[Auxilio]

Does anyone else who actually likes Levine feel like he fell off a bit? I remember the ~2017 era Levine stuff having both a wider range of topics and generally feeling more interesting. Not sure if it's rose colored glasses or not, though.

Maybe a bit, he did just have a kid like 8 months ago too though right? That changes work habits etc. a lot. Plus pandemic working from home etc. (assuming he worked at a bloomberg office before) he might have had more conversations with coworkers etc. pre-pandemic that led to a broader range of topics he would cover.

[Pro Era]

Does anyone else who actually likes Levine feel like he fell off a bit? I remember the ~2017 era Levine stuff having both a wider range of topics and generally feeling more interesting. Not sure if it's rose colored glasses or not, though.

Maybe a bit, he did just have a kid like 8 months ago too though right? That changes work habits etc. a lot. Plus pandemic working from home etc. (assuming he worked at a bloomberg office before) he might have had more conversations with coworkers etc. pre-pandemic that led to a broader range of topics he would cover.

I think the world of business and finance has also been pretty limited this year as far as the breadth of newsworthy discussion topics goes. The only thing I seem to do at work is SPACs, and every other push alert I get is about crypto or some meme stock soaring 8,000% overnight.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone else who actually likes Levine feel like he fell off a bit? I remember the ~2017 era Levine stuff having both a wider range of topics and generally feeling more interesting. Not sure if it's rose colored glasses or not, though.

Hmm . . . while I definitely have SPAC, GME, and NFT fatigue, I think Matt L. has been doing yeoman's work on Greensill and Archegos.