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Who Is Steve Eisman?

Posted by Timothy Sykes on Thu 20th of Nov, 2008 07:58:08 AM

A few people sent me THIS truly great article about the end of Wall Street written by truly great author Michael Lewis.

A lot of it–the majority of its 9 pages–focuses on a relative unknown named Steve Eisman, who was Meredith Whitney’s mentor. Reading some quotes by and about the guy, I knew I liked his style:

“I put a sell rating on the thing because it was a piece of shit,”

“He’s sort of a prick in a way, but he’s smart and honest and fearless.”

“I did subprime first. I lived with the worst first. These guys lied to infinity. What I learned from that experience was that Wall Street didn’t give a shit what it sold.”

So do yourself a favor, go take the time to read THIS article and understand Wall Street a bit better.

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  • goodie
    im 15 years old and pretty interested in this stuff. the COO of microsoft in asia pacific sent me this article. Pretty much changed the way I think.
  • younggunz
    Anyone have a link that shows what their fund has made off of the crash. I couldn't find anything. Is it a hedge fund? I know they're shrouded in secrecy but I thought you could still view their performance.
  • alsandair
    What an amazing article. I read it and when I finished it reread it. My favorite quote:

    " ...When a Wall Street firm helped him get into a trade that seemed perfect in every way, he said to the salesman, “I appreciate this, but I just want to know one thing: How are you going to screw me?... ”

    Classic lol.
  • benji
    Tim, your business must be BOOMING right about now.

    Also, I want your opinion. So Eisman and his buddies figured this house of cards would fall eventually, were they just lucky in their timing? If one went short on all this crap too early (ie. pre-2006/7), their losses would've been astronomical and they would've likely given up on waiting for this whole thing to collapse.

    I'm sure someone else figured out that the crappy debt was getting out of hand, so what separated these guys from anyone else that figured out the US housing market was going to collapse?
  • less than 1/3 of subscribers open their emails and u gotta remember my subscribers are poooor
  • bassman52
    Yo tim,

    You gonna have another market crash edition of livestock?

    lol crazy times baby crazy times!!!
  • bkm
    Jack,

    I'm not a subscriber, however if a TimAlert went out and you were already short than it would help your position by 1) providing liquidity to cover on the offer or 2) If enough peaple took the Alert and were hitting bids the stock would fall further giving you a better buy to cover. Your rant is nonsense.

    A fool and his money..........
  • younggunz
    damn, epic article.
  • Amz
    What a fucking great article Tim. Thanks man...made my day.
  • yah ameritrade sucks!
  • JF
    I was a subscriber to Tim Alerts but got extremely frustrated because friggin' Ameritrade wouldn't let me short most of the stocks shown. Will resubscribe when I change brokers.
    OT, I've been stalking RMTI but it is so thin that I'm not so sure about getting any meaningful volatility on it.
  • why would i try to bet against GOOG ro YHOO? tharts not my strategy, god the haters are dumb
  • i dont force trades, maybe if the market werent in an absolute panic thered be more hype to short...as it is, there's slim pickings...the good news it dont matter, i dont see too many people complaining about 190% return and subscriber testimonials every day, nice try hater, go back to your hole
  • secrule
    I remember tim saying once he was over 25k, gains of 10,000 would be common.

    I have not seen any, has anyone else?

    If I had the time and energy, I would go search out those posts and find them.

    I see one gain over 1,000 over teh past couple weeks. wow, Tim, What happened to the 10,000 common place gains?
  • LP
    RMTI is moving up on low volume. Did anyone short yet?
  • jcastellon
    tim,
    i think you should alert us in the chat before you email the alert out... there are deff not 800+ people in the chat and it would help us out big time
  • jack
    Tim,
    I shorted way before any timalert went out..
  • jack, u should thank your luckly stars u covered when i did since the stock just umped 50 cents...i expect your subscription now, thank u:

    http://www.timalerts.com
  • Cletus
    This is a great f-u-c-k-ing article. I seriously think every American citizens should be forced to read this. Its really long but 100% worth the time. Great find Tim. Below is a rather comical paragraph about the IB's.

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    “We just shorted Merrill Lynch,” Eisman told him.

    “Why?” asked Hintz.

    “We have a simple thesis,” Eisman explained. “There is going to be a calamity, and whenever there is a calamity, Merrill is there.” When it came time to bankrupt Orange County with bad advice, Merrill was there. When the internet went bust, Merrill was there. Way back in the 1980s, when the first bond trader was let off his leash and lost hundreds of millions of dollars, Merrill was there to take the hit. That was Eisman’s logic—the logic of Wall Street’s pecking order. Goldman Sachs was the big kid who ran the games in this neighborhood. Merrill Lynch was the little fat kid assigned the least pleasant roles, just happy to be a part of things. The game, as Eisman saw it, was Crack the Whip. He assumed Merrill Lynch had taken its assigned place at the end of the chain.
  • jack how exactly do i manipulate by telling people the details of all my trades? nobody has to read or follow, go watch cramer and be down 50% if u like
  • CashMoneyBling
    steve eisman is my hero..
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