Sense on Cents

What investor does not want to allocate some portion of his portfolio to safe, liquid investments? Who hasn’t said to his broker or financial planner exactly what The Wall Street Journal reports this morning, ‘I Just Wanted to Play It Safe,’ in regard to the Wall Street Ponzi scheme designated as auction-rate securities?

The WSJ provides these conversations as evidence collected by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in his case against Charles Schwab. As you read these conversations, I am sure it is easy to picture yourself as one of these customers:

Customer from Massapequa, New York

Customer: “You know, I’m not trying to make a ton of money. I just want to play it safe.”

Broker: “Understood.”

…

Broker: “When you go to get out of this, even though you tell the rep sell it that means you want to stop the auction. The hardest part of this auction is getting into it. That is the tough part. Getting out of it is easy as just selling.” (more…)