Tag: Billions Recaps

“From the Trader’s Desk”: Man the Torpedoes! Billions S7E5 “The Gulag Archipelago”

How I lied, went to hide,
How I tried to get away from you, now,
Am I right, if I fight?
That I might just get away from you, now
Megalomania – Black Sabbath

 

Welcome to the condensed version of “From the Trader’s Desk”! I will be heading out of a business/mini vacation trip mid-week, so my thoughts are going to be quick and dirty as they say!

I chose lyrics from a song on Black Sabbath’s sixth studio album, Sabotage, since it seemed fitting. Taylor has decided to join the fight to stop Mike Prince, so they are right to fight!

I really want to focus on Taylor and their brilliant move in dinging the good ship Prince, so just a few thoughts first.

Continue reading ““From the Trader’s Desk”: Man the Torpedoes! Billions S7E5 “The Gulag Archipelago””

Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 5: The Gulag Archipelago

The Gulag Archipelago, mentioned by Victor and that titles the episode, is a book written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I never read it but I am familiar with the author thanks to my Russian literature loving parents’ home library. Solzhenitsyn wrote to help raise global awareness about the political repression in the USSR. This particular book tells the story of a zek (a Gulag inmate) from his arrest to the show trial to being sent to a Gulag (labor camp in Siberia) to reflect on and learn from “his mistakes” based on interviews, reports,  legal documents and  Solzhenitsyn’s own experience as a zek. And as Solzhenitsyn revisits the ways things could have gone in his book, our characters deal with their past mistakes in their unique ways in the episode. Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 5: The Gulag Archipelago”

“From the Trader’s Desk”: A Whole Lotta Rosie! Billions S7E4 “Hurricane Rosie”

Ooh, a storm is threatening
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Ooh yeah I’m gonna fade away
Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones

 

We’ve made it to Friday so that means this is your weekly dose of “From the Trader’s Desk”.

This was a stormy (see what I did there?) episode, so to change it up I used lyrics from The Rolling Stones, since while the storm Rosie was threatening the lives in it’s path, it seems the storm named Wendy (with some help from Dr. Mayer) will be threatening the life of Prince’s White House ambitions. And extra points if you can name the band that sang the song I used as today’s post title!

I’ve chosen to not do a usual recap since Damianista does the best one in the business and who can compete with that? This week, I’ll just give you my two cents on a few things that I noticed in “Hurricane Rosie”.

But first a little housekeeping….

Continue reading ““From the Trader’s Desk”: A Whole Lotta Rosie! Billions S7E4 “Hurricane Rosie””

Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 4: Hurricane Rosie

Hurricane Rosie is a great episode demonstrating all kinds of hurricanes, literal and figurative, a billionaire businessman can face when he decides to run a presidential campaign! And the experiences he goes through in the episode makes Mike Prince realize that he cannot make casual decisions as he pleases anymore. Every single thing he does, in fact every single thing any of his employees does on behalf of the company, now matters in a way that it did not before. Prince comes out of the episode, having averted three major crises, as the apparent winner, yet he is clueless about a Cat 5 hurricane coming his way. Its name is Wendy. Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 4: Hurricane Rosie”

“From the Trader’s Desk”: Crisis of Confidence?

When I was living this lie, fear was my game
People would worship and fall, drop to their knees
Powerslave – Iron Maiden

 

If it’s Friday, then it’s time for “From the Trader’s Desk”.

Before I get into the meat of my post, just some observations:

I was asked why MPC is claiming ownership of Winston’s software. If he developed it how does MPC have the rights to it? Well, the type of risk management software Winston is trying to sell would most certainly take months (if not years) to develop, code, back test, and debug. Which means there is no way he could have developed it overnight. If what Taylor says is correct, (that Winston used data to test his software using MPC trader transactions) then that also would make it property of MPC. By using data and equipment owned by MPC, legally Winston doesn’t own it. Could a court possibly rule that he co-owns it? Yes. Also, most funds would have a clause written in his contract that he would not be able to market any type of software for a stated period (usually 6-9 months). His best course of action would have been to offer it to MPC first to either buy him out or lease the program. If they passed, he then could have tried to get permission from MPC to market it to other firms. Just another example of unnecessary greed killing a golden goose. Continue reading ““From the Trader’s Desk”: Crisis of Confidence?”