DerivaQuote
Sepculation
The opposite of hedging is speculating.
There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he
can't afford it, and when he can.
Mark Twain
Following the Equator, 1897
Speculation is the romance of trade, and casts contempt upon all its sober
realities. It renders the stock-jobber a magician, and the exchange a region
of enchantment.
Washington Irving
Wolfert's Roost, 1855
Hedge funds should be renamed, perhaps to ‘anything-but-hedge' funds.
Ginger Szala
Futures, January, 1996, p. 8
Speculators ought to keep quiet and speculate.
George Soros
Futures, October, 1995, p. 68
I think reporters make a mistake when they say that speculation is inherently
bad. Anyone who is involved with money has to take risks ... To write about
risk as if it's foreign to businesses is missing the essential nature of
what businesses do.
Saul Hansell
Media Critic, Fall, 1995, p. 63
The beauty of finance and speculation was that they could be different things
to different men. To some: poetry or high drama; to others, physics, scientific
and immutable; to still others, politics or philosophy. And to still others,
war.
Michael M. Thomas, 1990, p. 37
Hanover Place
Some people think of speculative traders as gamblers; they earn too much
money and provide no economic value. But to avoid crises, markets must have
liquidity suppliers who react quickly, who take contrarian positions when
doing so seems imprudent, who search out unoccupied habitats and populate
those habitats to provide the diversity that is necessary, and who focus
on risk taking and risk management.
Richard M. Bookstaber
Risk Management Principles and Practices
AIMR, 1999, p. 17
Risk versus return. What can be lost versus what can
be gained. The essence of every critical decision. Invest in those
dependable Treasury bonds yielding a slim but certain return, or throw caution
to the wind and snap up shares of the high-tech start-up that could become
next week's billion-dollar headline - or, just as easily, a bankrupt memory.
Marry the safe, stable person your parents adore, or run away with the loser
who ignites body and soul with a single glance - but lives only in the moment.
Risk versus return. A simple concept that often imposes difficult
choices. And, sometimes, terrible consequences.
Stephen Frey
Silent Partner
2003, p. 10
Can I show you something in a hedge fund?
Daniel P. Collins
Futures
March 2008, p. 18
There's nothing wrong with speculation, creating
derivatives or selling them, especially to sophisticated investors.
The problem is that when the bets go bad, the speculators keep being
back-stopped by the government - i.e., "by me and people like me."
Ann Coulter
April 28, 2010
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Last updated: January 9, 2011