Capital Gold Group Report: FDIC INSURANCE FUND WILL RUN A DEFICIT AS OF TOMORROW

FDIC Proposes Banks Prepay Deposit Fees Through 2012

By Alison Vekshin

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposed asking banks to prepay three years of premiums to replenish reserves dented by a rash of bank failures that the agency said will cost $100 billion through 2013.

The insurance fund will run a deficit as of tomorrow after 120 banks failed in the past two years, the agency said today. Half the costs from seized banks have been incurred already and prepaying the fees will raise $45 billion, the FDIC said. The agency rejected options for a second special fee or borrowing from the Treasury Department.

“What we are proposing to do is to tap the ample liquidity of the banking industry to improve our own liquidity position without borrowing from the Treasury,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said at a Washington board meeting. The agency raised its five- year loss estimate by 43 percent.

The agency is required by law to rebuild the fund when the reserve ratio, or the balance divided by insured deposits, falls below 1.15 percent. It was 0.22 percent on June 30. The fund, drained by 95 bank failures this year, had $10.4 billion at the end of the second quarter. The fund will erase its deficit by 2012, the staff said.

The proposal approved by the board requires banks to pay premiums for the fourth quarter and next three years on Dec. 30.

The board backed prepayments over alternatives such as borrowing taxpayer dollars from the Treasury, charging the banking industry a special fee in addition to levies they already pay and borrowing directly from the banks.

John Dugan, the head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said he was pleased the agency proposal didn’t impose another special assessment this year and next year.

Assessment Opposition

“For banks that were already feeling the effects of a weak economy, special assessments could only make them weaker,” said Dugan, a member of the five-person FDIC board.

Under the proposal, the FDIC wouldn’t impose another special assessment this year. The agency would raise assessments by 3 basis points in 2011.

The FDIC will seek public comment until Oct. 28 and then make a decision on its approach.

The FDIC raised its projected fund losses, from $70 billion in May, because the assets and number of failed and “problem” banks have increased, said Arthur Murton, director of the FDIC’s division of insurance and research. Bank failures will peak this year and 2010, he said.

The banking industry lobbied against a special fee that would be added to the regular annual premium, telling the FDIC and Congress such a levy would hurt their ability to raise capital. The industry welcomed the FDIC’s proposed approach.

‘Better Solution’

“It’s certainly a better solution than taking a large chunk of money out of banks’ income and capital,” James Chessen, chief economist at the American Bankers Association, said.

The prepayment approach gives “the FDIC the cash that they need, it will be paid for by the industry and it will not have the severe impact that other options would have had on banking,” Chessen said.

Banks paid a special assessment in the second quarter that raised $5.6 billion for the insurance fund, in addition to an estimated $12 billion in annual premiums. The agency also has authority to impose fees in the third and fourth quarters.

Banks backed prepayment because the premiums are classified as an asset when the payment is made, becoming an expense during the quarter in which the obligation is due.

The agency has authority to borrow against a Treasury line of credit that Congress in May increased to $100 billion. This option would have put the FDIC in the position of borrowing from taxpayers in the wake of public anger over the bank bailout.

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Capital Gold Group Report: $100 BILLION IN BANK FAILURES COMING; FDIC FUND STANDS AT $10.4 BILLION AS OF JUNE ’09

FDIC says bank failures to cost around $100B

By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer Marcy Gordon, Ap Business Writer – 2 hrs 10 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Regulators expect the cost of bank failures to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years — up from an earlier estimate of $70 billion. Faced with that sobering news, they voted Tuesday to require banks to prepay $45 billion in premiums to replenish an insurance fund that will start running dry on Wednesday.

The proposal by the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to require early payments of premiums for 2010-2012 could take effect after a 30-day public comment period.

The FDIC is fully backed by the government, which means depositors’ money is guaranteed up to $250,000 per account. But it would be the first time the agency has required prepaid insurance fees.

“I do think this is a good balance,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said. The plan requires the banking industry “to step up” while spreading the financial hit to banks over a number of years, she said.

An insurance payment by the industry of $45 billion “is not going to constrain lending,” she said.

The insurance fund has been sapped by billions from a rash of bank failures that began in mid-2008. The banking industry prefers the prepaid premiums over a special emergency fee — which would be the second this year.

Without additional special fees or increases in regular premiums, the insurance fund — at $10.4 billion at the end of June — will become “significantly negative” next year and could remain in deficit until 2013, the FDIC is now projecting.

Ninety-five banks have failed so far this year as losses have mounted on commercial real estate and other soured loans amid the most severe financial climate in decades. That has cost the fund about $25 billion, the FDIC said Tuesday. The $10.4 billion already was the fund’s lowest point since 1992, at the height of the savings-and-loan crisis. That is equivalent to 0.22 percent of insured deposits, below a congressionally mandated minimum of 1.15 percent.

Most of the $100 billion in costs are expected to come from failures this year and next, the agency said. Some analysts expect hundreds more banks to fail in coming years.

Bair didn’t rule out the possibility of the FDIC tapping its $500 billion credit line with the Treasury Department, if the economy unexpectedly worsened. “But today is not that day,” she said before the vote.

The deficit partly reflects higher reserves the FDIC has set aside for anticipated bank failures. At the same time, the balance of cash and assets of failed banks that can be sold by the FDIC remain positive, the agency said.

An emergency insurance fee on banks, which took effect June 30, brought in around $5.6 billion. Another one would allow the healthiest banks to keep more capital for investment, but could drive weaker banks toward failure, further depleting the insurance fund.

“The prepaid assessments represent money that the FDIC expects to receive from banks anyway over the next several years, but having the cash on hand sooner … provides more flexibility for dealing with any contingencies over the foreseeable future,” James Chessen, chief economist of the American Bankers Association, said in a statement. “Another special assessment would likely do more harm than good as it would directly reduce bank income, hinder capital growth, and make lending much more difficult.”

In addition to the insurance fund, the FDIC has about $21 billion in cash available in reserve to cover losses at failed banks, down from $25 billion at the end of the first quarter.

“There’s lots of liquidity; there’s lots of cash. Liquidity’s not an issue for the banking system right now,” Bair told reporters.

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Capital Gold Group Report: Trichet Says Strong Dollar Is ‘Extremely Important’

By Gabi Thesing and Christian Vits

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said a strong dollar is “extremely important” for the world economy and it’s too early for the ECB to unwind emergency stimulus measures.

“In the present situation it is extremely important that we can have in the framework at the level of global finance and the global economy a strong dollar, as the authorities in the U.S. are saying,” Trichet told lawmakers in Brussels today. “The solidity of the dollar is very important.”

Trichet’s comments come after a 15 percent slide in the dollar against the euro since February that’s threatening to hamper Europe’s recovery from the worst recession since World War II. With the Group of 20 nations pledging to rebalance the global economy away from a trade deficit in the U.S., the risk for the ECB is that its economy feels the pain of further dollar adjustment.

The euro fell from $1.4661 to as low as 1.4627 after Trichet’s remarks.

“It would be premature to declare the crisis over,” Trichet said. “Now is not the time” for the ECB to unwind its stimulus measures. “However, at some point in time an exit strategy will have to be implemented. The ECB has an exit strategy and stands ready to put it into action when the time comes.”

Non-Standard Measures

The Frankfurt-based central bank has lowered its benchmark lending rate to a record low of 1 percent to fight Europe’s worst recession since World War II. It is also employing “non- standard measures” to get credit flowing through the economy again, lending banks as much money as they need at the benchmark rate and buying covered bonds.

“The euro-area economy shows signs of stabilization,” Trichet said. “In the period ahead we expect to see a very gradual recovery.”

The ECB this month predicted economic growth in the 16- nation euro region of about 0.2 percent in 2010, revising a June forecast for a 0.3 percent contraction. In 2009, the economy will shrink about 4.1 percent, less than the 4.6 percent contraction predicted three months earlier.

G-20 leaders concluded a summit in Pittsburgh on Sept. 25 promising to pursue policies that bring the world economy into greater balance. That initiative may require the dollar to fall further so as to narrow the U.S. trade deficit, according to economists at Morgan Stanley.

Dollar’s Dominance

Trichet’s comments came the same day that World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the U.S. dollar’s dominance as the world’s main reserve currency will be challenged as the financial crisis reshapes the global economy.

“There is every reason to believe that the euro’s acceptability could grow,” Zoellick said. “Of course, the U.S. dollar is and will remain a major currency. But the greenback’s fortunes will depend heavily on U.S. choices” on inflation, the budget deficit and financial oversight, he said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week defended the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. The U.S. has a “special responsibility” to preserve confidence in its financial system and “sustain the dollar’s role as the principal reserve currency in the international financial system,” he said Sept. 24 in Pittsburgh.

Trichet also urged banks to accelerate lending to their economies. The global recession has made banks reluctant to lend and also eroded demand for debt. In Europe, loans to the private sector rose 0.1 percent in August from a year earlier, the slowest growth since records began in 1991, the ECB said last week.

There’s a “gradual improvement in financing conditions which is expected to support demand for credit in the period ahead,” Trichet said. “It is for this reason that the Governing Council continues to regard ECB interest rates as appropriate.”

“Our message to banks is clear: do your job,” he added.

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Capital Gold Group Report: Rising Debt May Cause Sun to Set on U.S. Economy

By David Wilson

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) — As an economic power, the U.S. may go the way of the British Empire because of the government’s increasing debt burden, according to Richard A. Posner, an economist and federal judge.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows how the public debt, or the national debt aside from liabilities for entitlement programs, has climbed in the past year. The chart goes back to March 2005, when the U.S. Treasury started giving daily updates on the debt.

Public debt will keep growing rapidly, Posner wrote earlier this week on a blog he shares with Gary Becker, an economics and sociology professor at the University of Chicago.

Declining tax revenue, rising Medicare costs, congressional reluctance to cut spending or raise levies, and the likely cost of efforts to overhaul health care and promote climate control will push the debt higher, in Posner’s view.

“At some point the wheels may start coming off the chassis,” he wrote. “The United States may find itself in the kind of downward economic spiral in which ‘developing’ countries often find themselves.” He drew the comparison with the British Empire, whose economic position in the early 20th century was similar to the U.S. role today.

The threat may emerge as the Treasury borrows more and more money, fear of inflation worsens as the Federal Reserve avoids raising interest rates, and government social programs cause unfunded spending to increase, the posting said.

Posner’s most recent book is “A Failure of Capitalism,” published in May. He is a U.S. Court of Appeals judge for the Seventh Circuit as well as a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.

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Capital Gold Group Report: Gold Rises Above $1,020/oz as Dollar Slides

By Jan Harvey

LONDON (Reuters) – Gold hit 18-month highs on Wednesday as the dollar’s slide to 2009 lows against the euro sparked buying of the metal as an alternative asset, helping lift silver and platinum to multi-month peaks.

The precious metal could be building up for an assault on its previous all-time high above $1,030 an ounce, set in March 2008, traders said.

Spot gold rose to a high of $1,020.50 an ounce and was at $1,015.10 an ounce at 1340 GMT against $1,005.90 late in New York on Tuesday.

Barclays Capital analyst Suki Cooper said given the extent of net speculative buy positions in COMEX-traded gold futures, conditions for gold are not as favorable as they were at the time of last year’s record high.

Nonetheless, if the dollar keeps falling, gold could continue to climb, she said. “If we see currency movements becoming much more favorable — if we see the dollar weakening substantially — that is going to be a key support for prices.”

U.S. gold futures for December delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $10.20 to $1,016.50 an ounce.

The dollar slipped against the euro and the yen on Wednesday after U.S. Treasury data showed a sharp increase in net capital outflow from the United States in July.

The U.S. currency hit its weakest this year versus the euro earlier, with the single currency breaking $1.47 for the first time since December. The dollar came under pressure as investors moved to notionally higher-risk currencies.

Better-than-expected U.S. retail sales data and a statement from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke that the U.S. recession was most likely over on Tuesday have boosted interest in assets seen as higher risk.

World stocks hit 11-month highs on the news, while European shares also rose.

PHYSICAL DEMAND PICKS UP

Physical demand for gold picked up in Asia, home to some of the world’s largest bullion markets, despite high prices having discouraged consumers throughout the year.

“India is still buying despite the high prices. Maybe they are afraid that prices will go up again,” said a dealer in Singapore.

Gold’s rally helped lift other precious metals, with silver and platinum — both of which are largely industrial in use — also hitting multi-month highs as base metals rose on the more positive economic outlook.

Silver prices rose to a 12-month high of $17.37 an ounce, and were later at $17.25, against $16.97 late on Tuesday. Its ratio to gold — which measures its value compared to the yellow metal — fell to 58.8 from around 64.5 a month ago.

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Capital Gold Group Report: Commentary: A Perfect Storm for Gold

Sep 15 2009 3:29PM

$1,000 Gold – Can It Last?

Gold cracked the $1,000-an-ounce barrier for a second time last week, and the New York spot price is now hovering right around that four-digit mark. The first time this happened, in March 2008, the price plummeted to the low $900s within a couple of days.

No one knows what gold will do this time around, but there are some plausible reasons why the price could stay higher longer.

The first reason is one that we’ve discussed before—we are now in what has historically been gold’s strongest season of the year. September is gold’s best month of the year in terms of month-over-month price appreciation, the key driver being jewelry makers stocking up for holiday buying in Asia, the Middle East and North America. This strength historically lasts until February.

A second reason relates to the weak dollar due to prolonged rock-bottom interest rates and massive deficits being piled up in the U.S. Gold and the dollar typically move in opposite directions, so a weak dollar tends to be good for gold. That inverse relationship is intact so far in September—the DXY dollar index had lost 2 percent of its value through Friday, hitting a 12-month low, and over the same period spot gold has risen about 6 percent.

A third reason is rebounding interest in commodities overall. Prices for copper, zinc and other metals have seen strength recently. This isn’t surprising, given the growing signs of economic recovery and the dollar weakness.

In addition to these factors, Barrick Gold has reportedly purchased more than 2 million ounces of gold and is expected to buy another 3 million ounces to cut its hedge position by more than half.

Many are afraid that a global economic recovery will unleash inflation. Stimulus spending by the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world has added several trillion dollars to the global money supply. This will eventually erode the value of the dollar and other currencies.

There is an opposing fear that all of the stimulus spending won’t be enough to get the global economy out of its sickbed. What happens then? The Fed and others have made it clear that their medicine will be more stimulus spending, which will further devalue paper currencies.

Either way, gold has appeal.

As long as the global economy is transmitting mixed signals, gold stands to benefit as an uncertainty hedge and a store of value. How long the price is in the $1,000 range or higher remains to be seen, but this unusual convergence of factors creates favorable conditions for gold investors.

by Frank Holmes
CEO and Chief Investment Officer
U.S. Global Investors, Inc.

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Capital Gold Group Report: Gold Seen Above $1,100 in 2010 on Central Bank Buying

Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:39am EDT

DENVER, Sept 15 (Reuters) – The price of gold could rise above $1,110 an ounce in 2010 as central banks diversify their reserves into gold due to a faltering dollar, economist Martin Murenbeeld told the Denver Gold Forum on Tuesday.

Murenbeeld, president of Canada-based consultant Dundee Wealth Economics, forecast gold could rise to an average of $1,116 an ounce in 2010.

Spot gold XAU= was trading at around $1,002 an ounce on Tuesday. Bullion closed above $1,000 for the first time last Friday on the back of dollar weakness.

In a keynote speech at the Gold Forum, an annual industry get-together, Murenbeeld said that there was a positive change in central banks’ attitudes toward gold as an investment and a key part of their reserves.

“The central banks and the G20 (countries) have complained more precipitously about the U.S. dollar and the U.S. monetary and fiscal policies, which leads them to think more and more about shifting their reserves,” he said.

“They don’t have a lot of options for shifting their reserves, and gold is being mentioned more frequently as an important asset.”

Recently, China and other emerging economic powers have signaled growing interest in gold rather than stockpiling their currency reserves in U.S. dollar-denominated assets.

In addition, Murenbeeld, who is also an adjunct professor for the MBA program at the University of Victoria, said that gold is becoming increasingly used in investment portfolios for performance and lowering overall risks.

“More and more portfolio managers are starting to think gold and commodities as an asset class,” he said.

Murenbeeld also said it was possible that a geopolitical event or crisis could drive gold prices sharply higher.

“Slowly but surely, gold is going back to its days where it was being held in a precautionary form by people worry about currency debasement, inflation, whatever you worry about,” he said. (Reporting by Frank Tang; Editing by Christian Wiessner)

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Capital Gold Group Report: Gold Futures Advance on Inflation-Hedge Demand; Silver Also Gains

By Halia Pavliva and Nicholas Larkin

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) — Gold rose, closing above $1,000 an ounce for the third straight session, as commodities climbed on demand for a hedge against inflation. Silver also gained.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s has probably ended, while warning that growth may not be strong enough to reduce unemployment quickly. The Fed has kept its benchmark lending rate as low as zero since December. It authorized $1.45 trillion in purchases of mortgage-backed securities and other housing debt this year.

“The market believes that the Fed is not going to be able to withdraw the funds fast enough and that would cause inflation,” said Leonard Kaplan, the president of Prospector Asset Management in Evanston, Illinois. “I don’t believe that for a minute, but this is what the market believes.”

Gold futures for December delivery gained $5.20, or 0.5 percent, to $1,006.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Sept. 11, the metal reached a record closing price of $1,006.40.

The price for immediate delivery gained $6.63, or 0.7 percent, to $1,006.93 at 2:54 p.m. New York time. Eighteen of 19 raw materials in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index rose today, led by a record surge in corn.

“The debate on gold’s price prospects remains alive and well among both fundamentals-followers and technicians poring over charts,” Jon Nadler, a Kitco Inc. senior analyst in Montreal, said in a note.

The dollar fell against a basket of six major currencies, extending a slide to the lowest in 11 months. Gold futures have rallied 28 percent since the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. a year ago as investors bought precious metals to protect their wealth amid the first global recession since World War II.

Possible ‘Reversal’

“Charts indicate that if the $1,050 level is not attained during the current ‘break-out’ or if a double or triple top is confirmed under that same level, then gold could signal a reversal such as the ones that occur on average about every six years,” Nadler said.

Futures reached an 18-month high of $1,013.70 on Sept. 11. Gold may climb to as high as $1,100 in the next six months, researcher GFMS Ltd. said yesterday.

Sales at U.S. retailers in August surged 2.7 percent, the most in three years, from July, government data showed today.

“Gold is continuing to knock on the $1,000 door without making a concerted effort either way to test resistance or support,” GoldBore Ltd., a brokerage in Dublin, said in a note. “Gold needs to push above $1,012 in the short term and $1,020 in the longer term for the upward momentum to be regained.”

Net Longs

Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators increased their bets on rising New York gold futures to a record in the week ended Sept. 8, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said last week. Net-long positions jumped 22 percent to a 224,676 contracts, the biggest increase this year.

Silver futures for December delivery in New York rose 37.7 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $17 an ounce. The price has gained 51 percent this year.

Platinum futures for October delivery was little changed at $1,320.30 an ounce on the Nymex. Palladium futures for December delivery gained 0.2 percent to $296.25 an ounce.

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Capital Gold Group Report: FIRST MAJOR BANK FAILS DUE TO DETERIORATING CONSTRUCTION AND COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE LOANS

CORUS IS THE SECOND LARGEST BANK TO FAIL THIS YEAR

September 14, 2009

Federal regulators seized Chicago-based Corus Bank, marking the first major bank to be undone by deteriorating construction and commercial real-estate loans during the current downturn.

The branches and deposits of Corus will be assumed by MB Financial, which has more than $8 billion in assets and over 70 branches in Chicago and its suburbs. MB Financial earlier this month took over the assets, branches and assets of InBank, a small bank based in Oak Forest, Ill.

Corus is the second largest bank to fail this year. It will cost the government between $1.5 billion and $2.4 billion in losses, depending on the performance of the bank's outstanding loans. [The FDIC Insurance Fund currently stands at $10.4 billion.]

In addition to Corus Bank, Venture Bank of Lacey, WA, and Brickwell Community Bank of Woodbury, MN, also failed, bring the total bank failures for 2009 to 92.

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gold

Capital Gold Group Report: INSIDERS SELL LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW

Corporate officers and directors were buying stock when the market hit bottom. What does it say that they’re selling now?

By Colin Barr, senior writer

Last Updated: September 12, 2009: 7:25 PM ET

NEW YORK (Fortune) — Can hundreds of stock-selling insiders be wrong?

The stock market has mounted an historic rally since it hit a low in March. The S&P 500 is up 55%, as U.S. job losses have slowed and credit markets have stabilized.

But against that improving backdrop, one indicator has turned distinctly bearish: Corporate officers and directors have been selling shares at a pace last seen just before the onset of the subprime malaise two years ago.

While a wave of insider selling doesn’t necessarily foretell a stock market downturn, it suggests that those with the first read on business trends don’t believe current stock prices are justified by economic fundamentals.

“It’s not a very complicated story,” said Charles Biderman, who runs market research firm Trim Tabs. “Insiders know better than you and me. If prices are too high, they sell.”

Biderman, who says there were $31 worth of insider stock sales in August for every $1 of insider buys, isn’t the only one who has taken note. Ben Silverman, director of research at the InsiderScore.com web site that tracks trading action, said insiders are selling at their most aggressive clip since the summer of 2007.

Silverman said the “orgy of selling” is noteworthy because corporate insiders were aggressive buyers of the market’s spring dip. The S&P 500 dropped as low as 666 in early March before the recent rally took it back above 1,000.

“That was a great call,” Silverman said. “They were buying when prices were low, so it makes sense to look at what they’re doing now that prices are higher.”

Straightforward trading

In the case of firms such as discount broker TD Ameritrade (AMTD), they are selling with abandon. Chairman Joe Moglia has netted more than $10 million in profits from stock sales since April, by selling shares on each of the last 106 business days, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

A TD Ameritrade spokeswoman said Moglia’s sales are being made under a pre-arranged selling plan he filed with the SEC last August. Under that plan, his brokers exercise some options he got eight years ago and sell the underlying shares every day the company’s stock price is above a certain level.

Moglia’s not the only insider selling at TD Ameritrade. The company’s founder and former chairman, Joe Ricketts, and his wife Marlene last month sold 5.7 million shares to help fund the family’s purchase of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. They owned 16% of the company’s stock at last count.

Silverman said the TD Ameritrade insider sales don’t particularly raise concerns about the company’s health, because “special circumstances” — the Cubs deal and the pending expiration of Moglia’s options — are evident.

He said it’s potentially more worrisome when insiders suddenly make big sales without obvious motivating factors.

Fossil (FOSL) CEO Tom Kartsotis has sold $25 million of the watchmaker’s stock over the past month. Shares of Fossil have more than doubled since early March. Fossil didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

At video game maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI), CEO Robert Kotick and director Brian Kelly each made more than $10 million last month by selling shares after exercising stock options.

While some of Kotick’s options were due to expire next year, others weren’t due to expire until 2014 in his case and 2012 in Kelly’s. The stock sales took place at prices that were about 50% above their 52-week low. Activision didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Adding to the flurry of stock sales, companies are selling stock to the public at a brisk clip while buybacks have tailed off. All told, U.S. corporations have been net sellers of $105 billion of stock over the past four months, Biderman said.

Insiders have managed to cash in on some of those offerings. Healthcare payment administrator Emdeon (EM), for instance, last month raised $155 million in an initial public offering. At the same time, selling shareholders led by private equity investor General Atlantic Partners raised $188 million.

Though the wave of selling by insiders doesn’t necessarily predict a pullback in their stocks or the market as a whole, it’s hard to put a happy spin on the recent trends.

“The disparity between buyers and sellers right now is vast,” said Silverman. “That’s the beauty of following insider trading — these guys are talking with their checkbooks.” 

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