Raw deal.

Macquarie bank got a hammering in the business pages today for supposedly abusing the Australian government's taxpayer funded AAA guarantee which has helped them to emerge from the GFC in great shape. You can read about it on the smh.com.au website in the business section but essentially they took advantage of this guarantee to borrow more than $16 bn and in an unintended consequence proceeded to buy up loan books trading at hefty discounts such as a $1 bn portfolio owned by Ford Credit Australia. Treasurer Wayne Swan is said to be furious about this but I can only imagine that this is a pose for public consumption. I'm no fan of Macquarie, our closest equivalent to the vampire squid, but they represent raw capitalism, red in tooth and claw and they have done EXACTLY what every economist and central banker has wanted done with our stimulus dollars. They've recycled them and if Ford's Australian dealerships survived the GFC because Macquarie would give their customers loans then it's hard to see what the crime is.

Macquarie was sold down on the open which wasn't great for me, having punted a few June 4500 calls on the close, but since it was above support I bought some stock at 4279 which I've tipped out at 4350 and paid for the mark down on the calls. Since it's lagging the other banks and holding above support, I've also bought a few more of the June 4500 calls at 114.

Here's the daily chart.

Otherwise, I'm out of Qan at 251. This could be premature but with the US and UK markets closed overnight then today is a suitable day for some end of month window dressing. I'm out of Ozl at 109 also but like most of my positions at present, I'm a good chance of buying back in on pullbacks.

4.10 That was a tedious day though not unexpected with a guaranteed quiet night tonight, on the markets at least. Window dressing just isn't a factor anymore which is a success for ASIC, I suppose, although I miss the fun and games. Although the market has outperformed relative to the drop in the US, we've actually fallen while the Tokyo and Hong Kong markets are flat and the Kospi is up. Mqg has drifted to 4333 and the options are worth about 100 now.