For all this talk of a single rogue French trader losing €4.9 billion ... how did this guy bypass all the security checks (I make the assumption that there *are* security checks on how much you can trade) to create such large positions? Every report I read said this guy is nothing remarkable ... and yet he pulled this off? By hacking the system? By figuring out how to bypass a complex system? And without personal gain? I'm not one to believe in conspiracy theories, but it's hard for me to think that one man did this all by himself.

. . .

I find the gyrations of the market fascinating. I was following up with some tech companies tonight when I noticed that VMware got reamed in after-hours trading. They beat expectations, but still they got hammered down for a 25% loss to $60/share (which is pretty much what they IPOed at). Ah, the pains of owning growth stocks with high P/E ratios crash to the earth... I remember watching my holdings in Akamai crumble when they didn't announce stellar earnings...