GM still broke

GM (General Motors), AKA "Government Motors" as the US government is a 61% shareholder, has relisted on NYSE late last year, and its financials still do not look all that great. While the Economist suggests that net income's in the green, its fiancial statments suggests otherwise.

Balance Sheet

While GM's Total Assets have increased from $131,899M to $137,238M, at +4%; Total Liabilities have increased from $101,886M to $107,493M, at +5.5%. This means net equity has actually suffered a -1.5% for the shareholders.

Cash Flow

"Cash from Financing Activities " has spiked significantly the past 2 quarters. This suggests that GM is in dire need for cash, a bulk of it to pension liabilities, "Issuance (Retirement) of Debt, Net ", of around $7.3B.

Back to the income statement. We see a net income of roughly $2.1B from last quarter, far short of the cash flow hemorrhage. So yeah, things aren't all that peachy!

Day trading outsourced to China

Welcome to globalization. The New York Times has noticed a trend in outsourcing of discretionary US stock day trading to China. Given that jobs are scarce, and a culture with strong economic incentives, this was just a matter of time.

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Trading firms based in the United States and Canada are recruiting inexpensive workers in China and teaching them to engage in speculative trading. This means repeatedly buying and selling shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market, hoping for quick profits.

China prohibits its citizens from using Chinese currency to buy or sell shares of companies listed on foreign stock exchanges, though there appears to be no prohibition against trading stocks for an account owned by a foreign entity.
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This constant change in market microstructure is probably the explanation for the changes in daily price evolution processes that market participants must adapt to. Where will this take us? Probably a Chinese Wall St. type of thing, as there simply aren't enough "real jobs" to go around.

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'Day trading is like a battlefield,' says Qu Zheng, 24, who has been trading for more than two years and typically trades a million shares a day at Lazer Trade’s office in Beijing. 'It’s very challenging because you can feel the pulse of the market.'
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