If you haven't yet caught it, you should run - don't walk - over to Zero Hedge and check out this approximately 90 minute video of Eric Rosenfeld giving a lecture about the LTCM collapse back in 1998. Fascinating insider's view. The comments over at Zero Hedge, as expected, are acerbic but many are enlightening and worth a read.
I know I will be revisiting this again shortly, as I found the entire lecture interesting. While I'm sure Rosenfeld mixes and mis-uses some vocabulary and concepts, all in all I think there are definite lessons here. The biggest, of course, as we've learned in the last 2 years, is that in times of stress, all correlations go to 1. However, I want to reconsider the endogenous risks that Tyler @ Zero Hedge mentions. I'll definitely watch this again soon, maybe after my nap this morning.
I think the leverage factor, which has been widely associated with the LTCM implosion, bears added consideration. Recently, Accrued Interest made the point that leverage isn't what kills; bad investments kill. Clearly, this is true. However, leverage has the force multiplier effect and can transfer an innocuous loss into a catastrophe. Eric's lecture covers what he calls the 10 biggest myths and misconceptions about LTCM, and yes, they did hit 300x leverage at various points, according to him. However, it did not occur for the reasons you might have suspected. It adds a bit more color to the whole conversation. I know that, in my own mind, I vilified LTCM for such egregious use of leverage. Seems I was mistaken.
Finally, we're all familiar with the idea of prime brokerages frontrunning their hedge fund clients. As I think I have previously mentioned, I think there may be an opportunity for a 3rd party prime brokerage business to emerge, or even for trustees and custodial banks to subtly move into the space. State Street and Bank of New York Mellon are the obvious candidates, as they already have large custodial and administration businesses, so why not move up the value chain and entrench yourself further with you customers (for additional fees, of course). However, there's a startup opportunity in there too, I believe.
Anyway, go check it out. Good stuff for us finance geeks, anyway.
Until next time...
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