Some useful info here,

http://www.moodys.com/moodys/cust/content/loadcontent.aspx?source=staticcontent/Free%20Pages/Credit%20Policy%20Research/CreditPolicyCurrentRsrch.htm

including corporate defaults

http://www.moodys.com/cust/content/content.ashx?source=StaticContent/Free%20Pages/Credit%20Policy%20Research/documents/current/2007000000474979.pdf

I was about to upgrade my contract as 18 months had expired and was planning to go into Orange and pick a phone. However, a friend pointed me in the direction of this site

http://www.buymobilephones.net

The PS3 arrived yesterday

Last time this happened was around 25 years ago

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7506653.stm

They mention the $68 trillion notional - why do people still use this number?

• S&P

http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/pdf/fixedincome/Final_CDOEvaluator_Slick.PDF

• Moodys

http://www.moodys.com/cust/content/Content.ashx?source=StaticContent/Free%20Pages/Products%20and%20Services/Downloadable%20Files/cdorom%20overview.pdf

• Fitch

http://www.fitchratings.com/web_content/product/FITCH_Corporate_CDO_Model_2008_Users_Guide_v1.1.pdf

 

 

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/05/21/13198/ft-alphaville-exclusive-moodys-error-gavetopratings-todebtproducts/

"Internal Moody’s documents seen by the FT show that some senior staff within the credit agency knew early in 2007 that products rated the previous year had received top-notch triple A ratings and that, after a computer coding error was corrected, their ratings should have been up to four notches lower."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/09a762ee-2699-11dd-9c95-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=5fd271ee-61f6-11dc-bdf6-0000779fd2ac.html

But is it as simple as a simple bug, or is their method of modelling CPDOs flawed

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,136d4b18-8d46-4687-8a83-0ef2f97ab805.aspx

Haven't done web development in a while but this article caught my eye

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/magazine/cc337884.aspx

http://www.skillfair.co.uk/info/news.asp?NewsID=263

Surprising that London gets less than the UK average

Hot on the heels of the Halifax numbers

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,74974cbf-7143-4210-b369-ec27d06f36ac.aspx

comes the latest RICS survey, and it makes for grim reading, showing the balance of surveyors reporting a fall compared to a rise is the greatest ever, eclipsing the last downturn.

 

This is all a bit confusing as Halifax said that sound economic fundamentals are supporting house prices

http://www.hbosplc.com/economy/includes/08_04_08HousePriceIndexMar2008.doc

"Sound economic fundamentals are supporting house prices. A strong labour market, low interest rates and a shortage of new houses underpin housing valuations. Our research shows that the labour market is the key driver of the housing market. Employment is at a record high and unemployment continues to fall"

There are several people that offer tuning options for the NSX

http://www.scienceofspeed.com/products/engine_performance_products/NSX/ScienceofSpeed/NA_power_stages/

http://www.tdi-plc.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=107_108_347_566

with Plans being considered the best people to do the work

http://www.plansmotorsport.com/

I got sent the raw data from the TDI dyno day

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,2aeb46b9-a379-4466-a23d-b8aabbf65106.aspx

NSXTDIDynoRaw - April 2008.xls (280 KB)

NSXTDIDynoRaw - April 2008 Type-S.xls (291 KB)

Suggesting that I should be changing up slightly short of the limiter when going from 4th to 5th

NSXTDIDynoGearChanging - April 2008.xls (94 KB)

in slight contrast to the data from Surrey Rolling road

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,35b51c27-802c-449f-b794-0ad5d4560c45.aspx

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23478211-details/The+negative+equity+map/article.do

 

Very similar to the graph that showed the falls last time around

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,ae958e81-fc73-40ad-babf-26da711926a2.aspx

 

 

 

http://www.napierscott.com/financialsearch/

Seems that equity derivatives is the new hot area

Halifax numbers were out today, and they made for grim reading. Down 2.5% on the month SA and 1.5% NSA. Annual appreciation is down to 1.1%

http://www.hbosplc.com/economy/includes/08_04_08HousePriceIndexMar2008.doc

Good job we have sound economic fundamentals to support the housing market, and it would be even better if sound economic fundamentals was a leading rather than a lagging indicator - see the U.S. one year ago.

This has really knocked the Spreadfair numbers - a couple of weeks ago the U.K. was priced at 181k by the end of this year

http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/News/Story/?storyid=763&title=Confidence_in_house_prices_on_the_rise&type=news_features

today's spread was 167/176 - down around 10k, or around 6%. The London market is 269/276.

Saturday involved around ten of us from NSXCB going over to TDI at Essex

http://www.tdi-plc.com/index.php

to have a go on their hub mounted dyno. Usually costing £100 an hour + VAT, I was very impressed to see the machinery in action. Compared to Charlie's plot at SRR, the torque curve fluctuated a lot more, indicating that there was less of a smoothing effect. My car gave 255.8bhp @ 7250 and 197.9 lb-ft @6550. This was the lowest of the 3.2's tested (most of which had exhausts/air intake mods), indicating that the NSX is receptive to some modding work.

Other rototest numbers are here

http://www.rri.se/index.php?DN=29

Cayman S (auto)

http://www.rri.se/popup/performanceg...p?ChartsID=252

S2000

http://www.rri.se/popup/performanceg...p?ChartsID=695

911 (1998)

http://www.rri.se/popup/performanceg...p?ChartsID=378

350 Z

http://www.rri.se/popup/performanceg...p?ChartsID=637
http://www.rri.se/popup/performanceg...p?ChartsID=447

Z4 M Roadster

http://www.rri.se/popup/performanceg...p?ChartsID=606

and NSX prime says the 3.2 typically gives 15 bhp more than the 3.0, which agreed with our measurements

http://www.nsxprime.com/FAQ/Performance/measure.htm

Other numbers from the day are here

http://nsxcb.co.uk/testvb/showthread.php?p=41990#post41990

I also had the opportunity to weigh my car (numbers in brackets is with me in the car - all numbers with 3/8 tank of fuel)

FL 274 (293.5)     FR 281 (316.5)
RL 387 (397)       RR 410 (448.5)

So the car appears to be heavy on the right hand side - even without driver. The weight distribution is 41:59, changing on slightly to 42:58 with me in the car

So the question remains, if I add these modifications to my car - how much will this affect my terminal speed at Bruntingthorpe

NSX.xls (15 KB)

My initial calculations indicate that I will need another 10bhp (199 vs. 189) to hold a steady 165 vs 162 (current record). Further investigation will have to be undertaken to see how the extra power will affect acceleration within the constraints of the Bruntingthorpe straight.

Sunday was Goodwood for the breakfast club,

http://www.goodwood.co.uk/breakfastclub/default.asp#diary

with the weekend's theme being ‘Modern Sports Car Legends – great drivers’ cars, from 1980 to the present day’. I was lucky enough to park trackside, along cars such as the short wheelbase Quattro.

There had been warnings that there may be a band of showers passing through the region, but nothing prepared us for the snow, the kind of which I hadn't seen since I was a child. After around twenty minutes, Mark (in his targa) and I decided to make a run for it back towards London.

We pulled over to take a picture of the cars. In hindsight this was probably not the best of ideas as the mild gradient meant that my car struggled to get going again. Mark had new tyres and his traction control may well have been more lenient, whereas my car would go nowhere with the traction control on.

Soon after this photo was taken the road was blocked off after a collision ahead, so we decided discretion was the better part of valour and took shelter in a local hotel. It seemed we weren't the only ones, as there were numerous exotics parked up, including a Zonda, Diablo SV and De Tomaso.

After around an hour I decided to make a break for it but made the mistake of taking a B road. It wasn't long before the traffic ground to a halt on a slight incline. The NSX was starting to struggle so I headed back towards the A27, which had been gritted unlike the majority of the smaller roads

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/money/2008/03/14/bcnbear414.xml

As discussed in the counterparty example a couple of days ago

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,98491b4a-d1ef-40a0-b115-3252e87ae62a.aspx

There seems to have been some confusion between various Markit indices

http://www.markit.com/information/products/category/indices.html

with some saying there is no liquidity in the indices

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/af1e1c18-ee04-11dc-a5c1-0000779fd2ac.html

"Liquidating structured credit instruments requires buying large amounts of protection using credit default swaps. This, in turn, drives the cost of protection higher, potentially triggering a chain reaction."

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2008/03/12/how-the-cds-market-can-support-the-bond-market

"a mark to market problem and, to boot"

I am assuming that they are talking about indices, as structured credit vehicles, such as CDOs tend to hedge against these rather than single name. There are no liquidity problems on the ITRAXX Europe, Xover or HiVol, and I believe the same to be true of the CDX. Furthmore, Markit are still publishing end of day curves, so why is mark to markit a problem?

Perhaps people are getting confused between the credit and the ABX indices?

 

I've written about the NSX several times

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,35b51c27-802c-449f-b794-0ad5d4560c45.aspx

and after achieving 162 mph at last weekend's VMax

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=507510

 I have decided that I will not be able to make it go any faster. I am starting to wonder if the NSX's time has gone - it woke up the established car players in the early 90's, but as time has moved on and other manufacturers have improved the range (Ferrari for instance went from 348-355-360-430), the NSX stayed still.

Recently the car magazines have begun testing the new Nissan GTR, with all saying it surpasses the opposition.

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122409

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Video/Search-Results/Video/Features/Nissan-GT-R-vs-Porsche-911-Turbo---part-one/

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Video/Search-Results/Video/Features/Nissan-GT-R-blasts-around-Rockingham/

http://www.nagtroc.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=22031

http://www.autocar.co.uk/VideosWallpapers/Videos.aspx?AR=231443&CT=V

http://www.autocar.co.uk/VideosWallpapers/Videos.aspx?AR=231444&CT=V

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=31&article_id=6594

Now 55k isn't cheap, but when 05 plate NSX's are going for 45k, and 911 Turbos >100k, it starts to look like remarkably good value. Especially when you consider it can get round the 'ring in 07:38. Astonishing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2U1Fw5nE-8

Probably not, as roll costs are only around 1bp - CPDOs will typically roll into the new index over a 10 day period. Provisional constituents are out from Markit - BAA is on the list

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,f5c355be-b7ad-4e93-96b1-4dee8b737444.aspx

Some more CPDO documentation...

JPMCPDO.pdf (82.85 KB)

SANDPCPDO.pdf (239.16 KB)

UBSCPDOs.pdf (538.82 KB)