On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:24:03 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

Being the conservative and economically stupid person I am, I passed. Good
thing. In less than a year the housing market crashed and he was stuck
upside down in several investments.

Did I ever tell you about my broker who wanted me to join a CDO hedge
fund in 2004?

So I looked through the prospectus, lot of legal mumbo jumbo and then
the numbers - I'm pretty good with numbers - they were talking 20 to 1
leverage factors with returns in the 15/20% range per annum.

37 pages of agreements on packaging the security, monies obtained,
leverages/averages and every other type of X-ages you can name.

Something didn't look right, so I got out the old scientific
calculator and made my own calculations based on their assumptions
over time.

It never came out the same twice. In theory, one parameter change
shouldn't affect all other parameters to the extend I was finding to
be true.

The upshot was while they were claiming 20 to 1, it was closer to 30
to 1 - it was the only way the math would work they way they claimed.

No freakin' wonder we got into that mortgage mess.

--

If we aren't supposed to eat animals,
why are they made of meat?