godfathers

one of my
highly creative
trader friends from mumbai
sandesh
has asked me the following question

"as there are a number of retail traders in the market
with each one having different view on the market,
is it the same case with operators also?

do all operators like big fund managers think same while making their strategy
or is their any chance that some of them are bullish while others are bearish?

do operators trap only retail traders or even each other?
is there any conflict or competition among them?"

questions like these really push me hard to think and search for answers.
questions like this take the discussion to an altogether higher level.

let me share my views.

1. there are only a handful of "real" operators in the world. ones like "lic of india" are quite big but unfortunately too docile to be an "operator". truly mammoth and deadly operators are just a handful. it is not difficult to get their names. they are the ones that have "access to mountains of ridiculously cheap money". (the "desi operators" behind indian stocks are of the size of dogs amongst dinosaurs. they run away when they sense the thump of approaching dino's)

2. after that much of money all they need is - information. but herein lies the biggest paradox. does money buy information? or is it that the information gets created because of the money! the latter is the reality, the former is a myth.
e.g. everyone thinks that the rbi policy announcement shakes the market, the reality is that it is the reaction of the money monsters that creates or suppresses the ripple. money uses the news. the news is only as important as the reaction of the money. if the money doesn't react, nothing happens.

3. do these operators differ in their opinion? well, doesn't matter. these operators are like mafia, they "own" well-defined but separate areas of operations divided and controlled among themselves. markets of different countries are under the control of different groups. all groups have foreign "stake holders". there is a broad consensus among all big "players" but even where there is a difference of opinion, that doesn't matter since the areas of operations are different. would u be surprised if i say that many indian banks get big big loans from foreign banks! in that case, don't you think there would be info sharing and permission seeking between the donor and donee? all banks and fii's and operators are connected and inter-dependent. there is little scope for new operators to get a foothold in any corner of the financial world without the permission or consent of the existing players.

big real operators know everything that matters. rather, they influence the news in a big way. it will be naive to think that governments decide anything without bothering about their patrons. big operators are the big brothers of small operators. small and tiny operators have a phase difference between what their big brothers do. they might not know the reason absolutely but they do follow suite!

operators are wise enough to keep their hands and feet off fellow operators and their domains!