So, who really wins at this market game that at the best of times is one that plays people? The answer could be ‘It’s Wall Street, Stupid’ but I don’t want to offend anybody—at least nobody other than the prop traders working for HB&B who trade against the public order flow, which is like shooting fish in a barrel since they know everything about the client—the orders, the thinking, the assets and liabilities, the margin debt, the milliseconds longer it takes even the fastest of them to hit Buy or Sell market order buttons to execute a trade. These people have every advantage.

If you doubt what I say, ask a prop desk trader at Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley how much profit they cleared yesterday. Ask the ones at Lehman, Citi and Merrill Lynch how badly they think their firms depend on them to stay afloat.

Yes, they have every advantage, and when they are desperate, they use it. Yesterday, they took every bit we gave them. Is it any wonder why trading has become so difficult for the average person—even the average hedge fund or mutual fund desk trader.

What we need is a level playing field, one where banks and dealers (ie, the sell side) and the public alike use independent brokers whose only function is to execute orders. We need an independent depository for our assets—one that is debt free and clear of any credit issues. The SEC (and an international body of securities administrators) should be the supreme regulator of the trading, brokerage and asset depository functions of the market. If traders want to go into debt, that should be a different system, one regulated by the Fed (and its international counterparts) because that’s what banks do, or ought to do, which is lend money.

I have said this for years, even presented it formally to the highest securities regulators in Canada. Politics and well-connected big money stop this from happening. Some day, however, the buy-side will come up with a solution that is in their best interests. Surely, the sell-side will fight it tooth and nail. They’ll tell the public you already have a level playing field (LOL).

I am eagerly awaiting a flood of new books being written by some of the 100,000-odd workers cut loose by HB&B. I expect they’ll tell it like it is, unlike the pabulums we get fed every day by Financial Entertainment Television (FETV). By FETV, I think you know the network I refer to.

Yesterday, I must confess that I almost puked at the FETV push for Disney (DIS). Now Disney is a Cara 100 Global Best Company, so, in my case, the talking heads were preaching to the converted, if you will. But it was so obvious to me that they were the take-out facility, setting up the buy-side for a post-closing hit, after the promoters had offed their stock. Yes, DIS lifted right into the close, then reported, and then, with no support, the shares collapsed.

DIS had closed at $30.92 on Tuesday. With all the pre-market hype on FETV, DIS opened yesterday at $31.94, lifted to $31.77 early in the session, then sold down to $30.89 as FETV was grinding out their rosy stories, then a late session rally on more hype from FETV, closing at $31.67. Then, boom; fiscal Q3 earnings were so-so, and the after-hours trading sank the price back to $30.90, a bit lower than where it had closed on Tuesday.

Today, Disney will be all but forgotten by FETV, used like a whore and forgotten until the next time somebody feels the need.

So who won? The people who paid the people at FETV to hype the stock all day are the people who won.

The market is a rugged place, but then it’s not a level playing field. Is it?

Have a good one. I know I will. You see; I don’t let the game play me. I know the ground I walk on.