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going to 0001 w/o a catalyst/PR. no one wants to buy a ticker w/ 7 name changes, multiple reverse splits, 2 A/S increase in less than a month, endless dilution, the worst ceo in history, no news since January, and down 15 of 16 weeks. best trade is to short.
Going into a negotiation with someone who holds more power than you do can be a daunting prospect. Whether you are asking your boss for a new assignment or attempting to land a major business deal with a client, your approach to the negotiation can dramatically affect your chances of success. How can you make the best case for what you want?
What the Experts Say
“There is often strength in weakness,” says Margaret Neale, the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Having power typically reduces a person’s ability to understand how others think, see, and feel, so being in the less powerful position actually gives you a better vantage to accurately assess what the other party wants and how you can best deliver it. And when you do your homework, you’ll often find you’ve “underestimated your own power, and overestimated theirs,” says Jeff Weiss, a partner at Vantage Partners, a Boston-based consultancy specializing in corporate negotiations and relationship management, and author of the forthcoming HBR Guide to Negotiating. Here’s how to negotiate for success.
Buck yourself up
“Often we get fearful of the threat of competition,”says Weiss. We worry there are five other candidates being interviewed for a job, or six other vendors who can land a contract, and we lower our demands as a result. Do some hard investigation of whether those concerns are real, and consider what skills and expertise you bring to the table that other candidates do not. The other side is negotiating with you for a reason, says Neale. “Your power and influence come from the unique properties you bring to the equation.”
Understand your goals and theirs
Make a list of what you want from the negotiation, and why. This exercise will help you determine what would cause you to walk away, so that you build your strategy within acceptable terms. Equally if not more crucial is to “understand what’s important to the other side,” says Neale. By studying your counterpart’s motivations, obstacles, and goals, you can frame your aims not as things they are giving up to you, but “as solutions to a problem that they have.”
Prepare, prepare, prepare
“The most important thing is to be well prepared,” says Weiss. That involves brainstorming in advance creative solutions that will work for both parties. For example, if the other side won’t budge from their price point, one of your proposals could be a longer-term contract that gives them the price they want but guarantees you revenue for a longer period of time. You also want to have data or past precedents at your disposal to help you make your case. If a potential client says they will pay you X for a job, having done your research allows you to counter with, “But the last three people you contracted with similar experience were paid Y.” Preparation gives you the information you need to “to get more of what you want,” says Neale.
Listen and ask questions
Two of the most powerful strategies you can deploy are to listen well, which builds trust, and pose questions that encourage the other party to defend their positions. “If they can’t defend it, you’ve shifted the power a bit,” says Weiss. If your boss says he doesn’t think you are the right addition to a new project, for instance, ask, “What would that person look like?” Armed with that added information, says Neale, “you can then show him that you have those attributes or have the potential to be that person.”
Keep your cool
One of the biggest mistakes a less powerful person can do in a negotiation is get reactive or take the other person’s negative tone personally. “Don’t mimic bad behavior,” says Weiss. If the other side makes a threat, and you retaliate with a threat, “you’re done.” Keep your side of the discussion focused on results, and resist the temptation to confuse yourself with the issue at hand, even if the negotiations involve assigning value to you or your product. “Know what your goals are and direct your strategy to that and not the other person’s behavior. You have to play the negotiation your way,” Weiss says.
Stay flexible
The best negotiators have prepared enough that they understand the “whole terrain rather than a single path through the woods,” says Weiss. That means you won’t be limited to a single strategy of gives and gets, but multiple maneuvers as the negotiation progresses. If the other party makes a demand, ask them to explain their rationale. Suggest taking a few minutes to brainstorm additional solutions, or inquire if they’ve ever been granted the terms they are demanding. Maintaining flexibility in your moves means you can better shape a solution that’s not only good for you, says Neale, but also makes them “feel like they’ve won.”
Principles to Remember
Do:
Put yourself in their shoes — it’s crucial to understand what’s important to the other side
Remember your own value — you are at the table for a reason
Ask questions — you’ll get valuable insight into their motivations and interests
Don’t:
Wing it — nothing beats good preparation
Depend on a single strategy — develop a range of responses to push the negotiation in your favor
Copy aggressive behavior — if they make threats or demands, stick to your goals
Why the IMF’s so hard on Greece
The Fund regrets ever rescuing Greece. Christine Lagarde likely won't let it happen again.
By PIERRE BRIANÇON 24/6/15, 5:30 AM CET Updated 24/6/15, 9:20 AM CET
Dominique Strauss-Kahn thought he was saving the world. Christine Lagarde can only hope she’ll be saving her job.
The impact of the International Monetary Fund’s involvement in the Greece bailouts may have had different consequences for the institution’s’ last two managing directors. But the main consequence of its controversial action since 2010 seems clear: For the Fund’s involvement in eurozone affairs, it looks like “never again.”
Strauss-Kahn, during the trial on pimping charges for which he was recently cleared in France, explained to the judges that he couldn’t have possibly attended as many sex parties as alleged by the prosecution because he was “busy saving the world.” He was the IMF’s managing director in 2010 when the Fund was called to help the eurozone devise a way to bail out Greece.
DSK’s successor Christine Lagarde, for her part, must deal with the consequences of what was a controversial involvement from the start. She has to soothe a restless IMF board where representatives of emerging countries resent the Fund’s involvement in the never-ending Greek crisis, for which it bent, if not broke, most of its long-standing rules of engagement.
That may be the reason why Lagarde is appearing to be tougher with Greece than its eurozone creditors — save possibly Germany, whose finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble remains highly skeptical of Greece’s ability to ever solve its own problems.
Lagarde comes up for re-election as IMF head next year. She can’t afford a split board. The European stranglehold on the IMF’s top job since its creation is being contested, and she has to show she can be tough on Europe.
That involves both being tough on Greece — making sure Athens adheres to a credible program — and being tough on Greece’s creditors, by pointing out that they will have to consent to debt relief in future. And she has until March 2016, when the current IMF program for Greece expires, to extract the institution from the Greek mess it regrets having ever stepped into.
The IMF’s role in Greece has been “one of the most credibility-sapping in its history,” noted Gabriel Sterne, a former Fund staffer who is now chief economist at Oxford Economics, in a scathing note published last year. IMF insiders and most economists tend to agree.
The main cardinal sin against its own rules that the IMF committed, as soon as Greece got its first bailout in 2010, was to agree to a program that didn’t and couldn’t guarantee the country’s long-term debt sustainability.
Code for “contagion”
Any IMF program must supposedly find a balance between the “adjustment” — which almost always means austerity — required by the Fund and the financing it provides in exchange. It almost always involves a currency devaluation and at times some form of debt restructuring.
Because Greece was in a monetary union, and couldn’t devalue its currency, the IMF introduced a “systemic exemption” that waived any condition related to debt, says Jean-Pierre Landau, who was then a deputy governor of the French central bank and now teaches at Sciences Po in Paris.
That was “a code word for the risk of contagion inside the euro area,” he notes. The IMF board, right from the beginning, found it hard to accept and “it created resentment and a lot of skepticism” within the institution, adds Landau, who knows the IMF well, having been its French board member in the early nineties.
The Greek bailout also created a precedent in terms of size. It was the largest ever implemented by the IMF, as a percentage of a given country’s stake in the Fund. Between the first and second bailout in 2012, the IMF ended up loaning about €30 billion to Greece. Some €23 billion is still owed, to be paid back until the end of 2030, starting with €5.5 billion due by the end of this year.
Then there were the forecasting mistakes. Sterne notes for example that the IMF revised down its estimate for Greece’s 2014 gross domestic product by some 22 percent in the space of 18 months. “In U.S. terms, that is the equivalent of revising away the combined output of the whole of California, New York and Florida,” he writes.
The IMF wasn’t the only institution forced to revise its forecast down throughout the long euro slump. But it was the only global body whose own money was at stake. When assessing Greece’s debt sustainability, the IMF famously put in a debt-to-GDP ratio of 120 percent by 2020. It now stands at some 175 percent, with little chance of coming down to that level within the next five years — unless there is a serious debt write-down by eurozone creditors.
Back in 2010 not everyone agreed the IMF should get involved in Greece. Jean-Claude Trichet, then president of the European Central Bank, fought tooth and nail to keep the Fund out. The eurozone, he thought, could deal with the problem on its own. Some of his former associates say today that Trichet lived the IMF’s participation in the first bailout as “a personal humiliation.”
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel was adamant that only the IMF had the expertise to devise and monitor a serious turnaround economic program for Greece.
Too little, too late
The Fund not only brought money — much less in total than eurozone members — but the “bad cop” mentality Merkel felt was necessary to force Greece to reform. Strauss-Kahn, who at the time was still harboring ambitions to run in the 2012 French presidential election, may also have hoped to benefit from a determined IMF action to help solve the euro’s problems.
Partly because of that, French President Nicolas Sarkozy — whose finance minister was … Christine Lagarde — wasn’t keen to shore up a possible rival and see the IMF intervene, but he finally relented to accommodate Merkel.
The extent of the IMF’s Greek mistakes are part of the reason it felt necessary to apologize back in 2013, notably for its former light-hearted estimate of the negative consequences of fiscal austerity coupled with a credit crunch.
In June, 2014 the IMF also circulated a paper outlining a new approach to dealing with sovereign debt — broaching the possibility in the future of demanding what it called a “reprofiling” of a country’s debt as a condition for its aid.
The idea is to avoid contributing “too little, too late” to resolve debt crises. For Greece, of course, the new thinking is definitely too late. And Lagarde is now facing unattractive scenarios.
If Greece doesn’t reach a deal with the rest of the eurozone this week, there is a strong likelihood that it won’t be able to pay the IMF the €1.6 billion it owes at the end of June. Defaulting on an IMF loan is a rare event, which only three small war-torn countries — Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe — have done until now. There would then be a good chance that the IMF might have to forego the whole €23 billion it is still due.
A deal this week, on the other hand, would allow Greece to pay its June bill to the IMF but wouldn’t dispel uncertainty over the rest of the loans. Athens faces sizeable (€1 billion-plus) annual IMF reimbursements until 2023, when they then dwindle down to manageable amounts.
IMF loans cannot in principle be restructured or undergo a “haircut,” so in case of default Lagarde will have to explain to her board why and how the money evaporated. And, to the governments of big emerging economies such as Brazil or Mexico, why their money was used to bail out the Greeks, whose GDP per head remains far higher than theirs even though it has fallen 25 percent since 2009.
So don’t expect the IMF to ride to the rescue next time a troubled eurozone economy is teetering on the brink. “They bent their rules to prop up a political construct like the euro. They’ve been burnt once, so they’ll think twice before they become involved again,” sums up Robert Kuenzel, head of economic research at Daiwa Capital Markets.
Nor will there be much enthusiasm at the IMF to take part in a third Greek bailout, if it proves necessary. For now, Lagarde’s priority looks relatively clear: To get her money back.
Leaked: Greece's creditors' demands.
The five-page counter-proposal made by Greece’s creditors has just leaked - in several places.
And it confirms that Athens has been pushed to raise more from VAT and also make sweeping changes to its pensions system, including raising the retirement age faster and eliminating benefits for the poorest pensioners.
The red crossings out show items which are being rejected by creditors, and the underlined red sections show the new proposals.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/jun/24/greek-crisis-eurogroup-meeting-tsipras-backlash-live#block-558ab7fbe4b0e0aeb011586d
A/S raised twice in less then a month to 1 billion. Expect a bunch more dilution, an increase in A/S to 5 billion, more, dilution, no bid, name change, then reverse split. This CEO blows
.0001 coming. Then 7th name change and reverse split. Worst CEO on earth
If you check out the weekly chart, there's a huge gap from $5.18 to $4.76 on 4.7.14-4.14.14. This should fill by eoy with deal imo.
Tsipras is the master of game theory. Greece will get another tiny extension and this will go on til the first week of July imo.
Totally agree schaub. Triple bottom formed below $1.10 range. Not gonna see those levels again. I do think there will be a few more scares and twists and delays still to come which drive the pps down to the low 1.20s but that's as low as I think it'll go. Unless of course there is the grexit which I don't believe Obama will allow. Glad to see lots of new faces here.
Greece defends 'harsh' reforms it promised creditors
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's government on Tuesday defended the billions worth of "harsh" new budget savings it has offered in talks with creditors, as some of the governing party's own lawmakers spoke out against them.
Greece has proposed measures worth 8 billion euros ($9 billion), including increases to company and consumer taxes, to persuade the country's bailout creditors to release new loans it needs to avoid defaulting on its debts next week.
A decision is expected this week: eurozone finance ministers are to meet Wednesday evening, followed by a European Union summit Thursday and Friday.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will also travel to Brussels Wednesday, for midday talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde, his office said.
Greece needs a decision before June 30, when its current bailout expires and it also faces a 1.6 billion-euro ($1.8 billion) loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund.
The government is also under pressure from other left wing parties and trade unions, who say its proposals will place further burdens on austerity-weary Greeks. Late Tuesday, 7,000 members of a Communist Party-affiliated trade union and 3,000 pensioners held a peaceful protest march through Athens, demanding that the government withdraws its proposals and restore pensions to pre-crisis levels.
Tsipras' radical left Syriza party won in January on a promise to repeal the harsh budget cuts and tax increases that previous governments had imposed since 2010 in return for bailout loans.
Tsipras says such measures have been focusing too closely on healing public finances while worsening the economic plight of Greeks.
But with creditors withholding 7.2 billion euros ($8 billion) worth of rescue loans and Greece's state coffers running dry, Tsipras has been forced to backtrack on many pledges. A debt default by Greece could result in much greater economic pain for the country — a potential run on the banks and even an exit from the 19-nation euro currency union.
On Tuesday, Tsipras' government found it had some explaining to do to its own party and backers.
"There is full comprehension that there are measures in the proposal that are harsh, and they are measures that under different circumstances, if it was up to us, there was no way we would have taken," government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis told the private Greek television station Antenna.
Sakellaridis noted the proposed measures seek to increase taxes on those with higher incomes rather than on low-income families, salaried employees and pensioners.
But some party members were not swayed.
The proposals "cannot be supported, cannot be voted for," Syriza party lawmaker Eleni Sotiriou was quoted as telling the weekly Dromos tis Aristeras. "The responsibility for the political developments regarding the submission of such measures will lie with those who made these choices."
Another lawmaker, Dimitris Kodelas, echoed the sentiment.
"Such an agreement cannot be voted on," he told To Vima radio. "The deal toward which we are moving is a deal which, by common admission, has nothing to do with our program."
Labor Minister Panos Skourletis insisted the proposal, if accepted by the creditors, was a good one for Greece that included beneficial measures for workers.
A deal that will ensure Greece remains in the eurozone is likely to have enough parliamentary votes to pass, as some opposition lawmakers will almost certainly vote in favor. But significant losses from the governing coalition of Syriza and its coalition partner, the small ANEL nationalist party, would be a blow to Tsipras and could lead to early elections.
ANEL said Tuesday that any agreement with Greece's creditors should be linked with some form of debt relief.
"Clearly a government that doesn't have the confidence of its deputies can't stand up. But I don't think we'll get to this point," Sakellaridis said.
The uncertainty of the past few months has further hammered the Greek economy, while worried Greeks have pulled billions out of domestic banks for fear of restrictions being imposed on banking transactions, or of the country leaving the euro.
The government's proposal "is clearly moving in the right direction" to ensure the country can maintain international funding "and avert a disorderly path towards bankruptcy," said Simos Anastasopoulos, the head of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce.
"On the other hand the proposed measures put the burden on the private economy," he said, adding that the new taxes are certain to "lead to recession and an increase in unemployment."
After a series of meetings in Brussels on Monday, European creditors say Greece's new reforms proposals offer a good basis to break a nearly five-month deadlock in talks over new loans.
Greece's new proposals "are tangible elements we can work with in an efficient way to reach an agreement," French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said. "We need one last push (Wednesday) night so that the heads of state can sign off on the agreement."
The IMF sounded less optimistic, with Lagarde describing the proposals as "still short of everything that we expected."
Hopes that a deal was at hand nevertheless boosted markets. The Stoxx 50 index of European shares was up 1.1 percent, adding to the previous day's big gains of 4.1 percent. In Athens, the stock exchange closed up 6.1 percent, after closing up 9 percent on Monday.
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras pictured at G8 demonstration in 2001
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/11692803/Greek-PM-Alexis-Tsipras-pictured-at-G8-demonstration-in-2001.html
Plenty of fools out there.
Blah blah blah. If so, then so be it. However, it took forever for finra to approve the last rs. I highly doubt goodman is stupid enough to try another rs so quickly with all the notes due these next few months. Therefore, big pump coming. Mass volume coming. Major rise in pps coming. Lots of volatility coming. Many pr's coming. These people want their money. So does goodman. ELRA needs to stay afloat for awhile this time around. Just my 2 cents. GL!
I plan on trading this for months or lose it all rather quickly. Either way, not going anywhere for awhile. Have a good one.
Sucks for them
I bought my tickets at 4. Willing to lose it all. With all the convertible notes due later this year, I expect a huge pump to pay these notes before the rs. If it doesn't happen, oh well. It's the gamble I'm willing to take. GL!
The O/s as of yesterday is 309,061,238 per ta
Thx rocco. 1.41 hit
I'm calling a $1.45-$1.46 top before a retrace to $1.20 range based on the "deal not going through"
What's nbg's dividend history?
National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NBG): Crucial 48 Hours Ahead
Greece is expected to finalize a bailout deal with international creditors in the next two days
NBG
By: TROY KUHN
Published: Jun 23, 2015 at 8:13 am EST
Optimism surrounding a potential bailout deal was raised yesterday as Greece’s international creditor’s nodded approval to the economic proposals presented by the country. Greece and the rest of Europe were seen rising to prospects of an end to the impasse in bailout talks that have dragged on for more than five months now.
Although Greece’s creditors showcased approval to the proposals, negotiations are expected to carry on for another two days before Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras manages to ink final agreement. A bailout deal would release further funds required to keep Greece’s financial sector afloat.
The emergency summit in Brussels concluded last night, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel telling reporters that the list of proposals presented by Greece display “a certain step forward." As quoted by Bloomberg, she added: "...but it was also said very clearly that we’re not yet where we need to be. Hours of the most intensive deliberations lie ahead of us." Similarly, president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, told reporters: “Today’s proposals are a positive step...they will be assessed in the coming hours.”
Meanwhile, Greece’s largest lender saw its stock rising on the back of positive sentiment. National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG) stock surged more than 18% yesterday and traded within the daily range of $1.20-1.30 to close at $1.30. Similarly, other Greek banks, namely Alpha Bank, Eurobank, and Piraeus Bank rose 18%, 22%, and 25%, respectively. Following a rise of 9% yesterday, the Athens Stock Exchange Index is up more than 4% today as of 05:37 AM EDT.
Along parallel lines, Greek government bonds saw their rates declining as developments in the emergency summit came forth as a significant breather. 10-year rates fell to 11.2% and two-year yields were down to 21.5% at close. Rates continued the downward trend as markets opened today. Two-year and 10-year yields are down 9% and 5% as of 05:30 AM EDT.
Greek banks were provided with a further extension to their lifeline today, inside sources reported to Bloomberg. As Greek savers continue to pull their deposits out of Greek banks, the European Central Bank (ECB) simultaneously increases the cap on the emergency liquidity assistance program (almost daily) that has been keeping these banks afloat.
In addition to today’s increase, Greek banks were allotted a raise to financial assistance on Monday. The ceiling on emergency liquidity assistance was bolstered by $2.1 billion to a total of $ 98.6 billion yesterday. ECB’s chief Mario Draghi assured the Greek prime minister that if Greece pledged to remain in the bailout program, Greek banks would continue to receive further support from Europe’s central bank, reported Reuters.
Prior to yesterday’s advancement, both Greece and its international creditors had entered negotiations with considerable austerity. Both sides refused to compromise over economic reforms, resulting in a five-month long standoff. Although the leftist Greek government maintains that its original stance was not compromised in yesterday’s talks, experts believe the country has had to make considerable cuts and concessions to reach the present juncture. Creditors viewed the new plan as “detailed, credible and impressive.”
According to The Guardian, in its proposals, Greece has agreed to generate additional revenues of 2.7 billion in 2015. Furthermore, Mr. Tsipras has proposed surplus targets of 1% in 2015, 2% in 2016 and 3% in 2017. Creditors believe that it is crucial for Greece to achieve these targets in order to emerge from the present recessionary environment.
Mr. Tsipras has a total of 48 hours to convince austere parliamentarians and strike a deal with Greece’s creditors. Greek government spokesperson Gabriel Sakellaridis told Mega TV: “Every lawmaker has a personal responsibility to recognize and understand not just the urgency of the moment, but the urgency of the whole project," as quoted by Bloomberg.
Greece Crisis: More Twists And Turns To Come
Hopes of a deal to stave off a default have been raised, but expect more shenanigans as the deadline for an agreement approaches.
Perhaps it was the crowds on Syntagma Square that did it. As European leaders met in Brussels, thousands of Athenians protested outside Parliament. Their message was simple: we want to stay in the euro. So please: get a deal. And soon.
There have been demonstrations before, but the interesting thing is that in recent weeks they have become more critical of the Greek government's negotiating strategy; less patient.
Perhaps Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, has noticed (his advisors certainly have).
The people of Greece are now deeply worried about the country being thrown out of the single currency, and indeed the EU.
And in a series of meetings in Brussels yesterday the Greek PM went further than ever before to try to extend his country's bail-out - and to stave off a default.
In the end there was no deal, but, on the flip side, there was more optimism than we have seen for months.
It is not just the locals who might feel the impact of the proposals: they will affect anyone going on holiday to the Greek islands.
At the moment they get a 30% discount on VAT, which is 23%.
That will be abolished, according to a copy of Greece's proposal seen by Sky News.
According to Greece’s lenders, the document is the most hopeful sign yet that a deal could be possible.
It contains a whole range of sacrifices, including:
:: VAT reform - removing a whole range of exemptions, including those reduced rates on the islands. That will raise 1.36 billion euros by next year.
:: Early retirement will be restricted, saving an additional 300 million euros.
:: Pension contributions will also be increased, bringing in 800 million euros.
:: A new special corporation tax on high profits above half a million euros - that should bring in 405 million euros.
The problem is: Greece's lenders are not yet sure if it all adds up. Or whether they will cut Greece's debt in return.
And they are still not there yet
So expect a lot more shenanigans in Brussels in the next 48 hours if Greece is to meet the new deadline later this week.
Heaven knows they have missed enough of them already.
Parliamentary Grand Committee to consider Greek debt situation
Parliament’s Grand Committee will meet in a special session Monday evening to discuss efforts by Greece to present a credible reform plan to EU leaders before it can receive another drawdown on bailout funds. The government must get a green light from the Grand Committee before it can agree to extend more money to rescue the ailing Greek economy.
The meeting of Grand Committee MPs Monday will follow close on the heels of discussions by eurozone finance ministers and EU prime ministers. The latter gathered in Brussels Monday afternoon to try and find a last-minute resolution to the ongoing stand-off between Greece and its creditors as it tries to identify reforms that would tip the EU’s hand and allow it to draw down much-needed bailout funds.
Meanwhile in Helsinki the new government needs a go-ahead from the Parliamentary Grand Committee before it can vote in favour of freeing up additional funding for Greece. Even after that, the full complement of MPs must vote on the issue, although Juha Sipilä’s government enjoys a majority in the parliament.
Greece’s left-leaning government met on Sunday to review its latest raft of reform proposals. Greek premier Alexis Tsipras has so far outlined the new plans to the leaders of EU heavy-hitters France and Germany, as well as to the president of the EU Commission.
In the wee hours of Monday morning EU Commission spokespersons tweeted that Brussels had received the Greek loan programme proposal. Tsipras was due to go through the suggestion with representatives of the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank ahead of meetings by eurozone finance ministers Monday.
Although initial smoke signals from Brussels looked favourable, commentators stressed that no concrete decisions about a loan drawdown could be made before the proposals were in black and white.
If Greece doesn’t get the 7.2 billion-euro loan infusion by the end of June, it won’t be able to stick to the IMF’s loan repayment schedule, which also requires repayment of a loan installment at the end of the month.
Stubb: No decisions Monday, more meetings likely
Meanwhile Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb was among the participants in Eurogroup meetings in Brussels Monday. Shortly before the discussions began, he told reporters that he doubted that any concrete decisions would be made.
“No hard proposals are on the table. I imagine that the process will continue for many days,” Stubb said as he arrived.
The minister said he had seen some of the documents tabled and added that some of them dealt with reforms to corporate taxes, but he said that the structural reforms didn’t go far enough.
“The expectations have been set too high, and I don’t think we will see anything today,” he noted.
Latest reports from Brussels also suggest that there had been some confusion with respect to the documents provided by Greek officials, with Eurozone ministers receiving several different versions of the reform proposals.
“The first proposal went out at 1.00 am. The next came at 7.00 o’clock with a note that the first was erroneous. And now the Eurogroup has one on the table,” Stubb explained.
Later on Monday evening it will be the turn of heads of government to discuss the Greek situation. However the financial institutions will first agree on any adjustments to the country’s debt programme, after which officials and the Eurogroup will weigh in.
Finance Minister Stubb said it is likely that there will be additional meetings over the next few days. Following the gathering of eurozone finance ministers however, he said that there had been some progress. However he would not divulge any further information on the progress of the talks.
Adult. Buying more right now. Last post. GL
That's pre split. Nice try. Split occurred 5.18.15
Tsipras and drahgi meeting top of the hour. NBG has soooooo many gaps this year, it's amazing. Gaps don't need to fill. Triple bottom achieved and held last week. Won't go below $1.10 again. Just my opinion. GL!!!
Sucks for them.
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There should be major resistance between $1.85-$2.05 but once these are broken and tested as support, NBG will get past $3.00, then NBG becomes margin eligible. Once over $6.00, then 100% margin eligible. Currently 200 MA on weekly is $11.74. I fully expect to trade at the 200 MA weekly some time later this year or early 2016. It'll be around $8.00-$9.00 range. Hopefully 2-3 years from now, NBG gets to the high teens to mid twenties. We'll see what happens but that's my optimistic point of view. I love the risk/reward potential w/ NBG. Especially the amount of capital you can "safely" put into it. Just my 2 cents. GLTA
$25 stock just 2 years ago. $500 stock 7 years ago. Once deal complete, just sit on your core for a few years. NBG will steadily rise just like the American Bank stocks have since 2008. I doubt $1.10 or lower will be available again unless deal doesn't happen. But as everyone here knows that I don't believe Obama will let Greece leave. Triple bottom happened last week. We won't see those levels again. Enjoy the ride up. Still gonna be volatile this week with gaps up and down but 1.10 or lower won't happen imo. Congrats NBG shareholders!
Not worried about split over next month or so. Once parabolic move happens, that will quell any notion of rs
Should hit 1.30zzz today
I've tried telling him before. Should be volatile all week here. However, long term I'm holding after deal struck. This is 2008 all over again except the Greek version.
Bookies not backing Greek 2015 euro exit yet
Growing nerves over Greece have been the talk of financial markets for the past week, but online betting firms see only around a one-in-five chance it will leave the euro zone this year -- a lower likelihood than earlier this year.
British-based bookmakers Ladbrokes and William Hill ceased taking bets on Greece becoming the first country to leave the euro weeks ago, but on prediction markets sites, which allow punters to bet against each other, the debate is in full swing.
Such sites, which aggregate the best guesses of punters putting money on the line, have proved the best indicator of the outcome of a string of major political events including last month's UK parliamentary election.
They show probabilities broadly ranging within 1-2 points of 20 percent when the question is whether Greece will leave the euro this year. At one of the biggest sites, Betfair, bets worth more than 120,000 pounds ($189,000) have been laid on the issue.
Those contrast with the odds Betfair itself -- or competitor Paddy Power -- will give punters on their sportsbook websites, which suggest a lot more anxiety about the geopolitical risks they are exposing themselves to.
Paddy Power is offering odds of 2-to-1 on Greece leaving the euro, but that is still down from 11/10, or almost even money, at one point earlier in the year.
"This reflects a change in the percentage chance of Greece exiting the euro zone from 48 percent to 33 percent," a Paddy Power spokesman said. "But with the situation constantly evolving we wouldn't rule out further fluctuation over the next few days. We can't see Greece lightening up anytime soon."
The sums involved are insignificant compared to the trillions in play on global financial markets daily.
But memories are still fresh of March's Israeli election and last year's Scottish independence referendum, when the betting sites also proved right and modeled opinion polls were way off.
For investment managers schooled in the art of measurable data rather than political or behavioral analysis, that record of accuracy -- which is supported by a handful of studies -- is gold dust.
Some surveys of market traders on Greece point in similar directions to the betting numbers.
Reuters latest polling of money market traders a week ago showed one in three backing Greece to leave the euro this year.
Yet another survey this week of bank economists gave similar odds to Greece leaving the euro at some point, and here the betting houses take a more aggressive view.
Paddy Power gives almost even odds -- 11/10 or a 48 percent probability -- of Greece having an official currency other than the euro by the end of 2017. It sees a 45 percent chance -- or odds of 6/5 -- that Athens will default on its debt this year, an event that would not necessarily force a "Grexit".
Another UK-based firm, William Hill, stopped taking bets on a euro exit last month. At the time the odds were 1/5 that Greece would be the first country to leave the euro zone and 3/1 that it would quit this year. "There are a lot of people who know a lot more about the likely outcome than we do and with the negotiations at such a sensitive phase we did not want to increase our liability," said William Hill spokesman Graeme Sharpe.
"We stand to lose a five-figure sum (if Greece exits) and we have no intention of making it a six-figure sum."
All the bashing in the world won't stop the parabolic move up ELRA is about to experience
Should be a wild, volatile week
Should be good for a few swing trades over the next month or so.
With the float eaten up, this baby ready to fly.
How to Negotiate with Someone More Powerful than You
Going into a negotiation with someone who holds more power than you do can be a daunting prospect. Whether you are asking your boss for a new assignment or attempting to land a major business deal with a client, your approach to the negotiation can dramatically affect your chances of success. How can you make the best case for what you want?
What the Experts Say
“There is often strength in weakness,” says Margaret Neale, the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Having power typically reduces a person’s ability to understand how others think, see, and feel, so being in the less powerful position actually gives you a better vantage to accurately assess what the other party wants and how you can best deliver it. And when you do your homework, you’ll often find you’ve “underestimated your own power, and overestimated theirs,” says Jeff Weiss, a partner at Vantage Partners, a Boston-based consultancy specializing in corporate negotiations and relationship management, and author of the forthcoming HBR Guide to Negotiating. Here’s how to negotiate for success.
Buck yourself up
“Often we get fearful of the threat of competition,”says Weiss. We worry there are five other candidates being interviewed for a job, or six other vendors who can land a contract, and we lower our demands as a result. Do some hard investigation of whether those concerns are real, and consider what skills and expertise you bring to the table that other candidates do not. The other side is negotiating with you for a reason, says Neale. “Your power and influence come from the unique properties you bring to the equation.”
Understand your goals and theirs
Make a list of what you want from the negotiation, and why. This exercise will help you determine what would cause you to walk away, so that you build your strategy within acceptable terms. Equally if not more crucial is to “understand what’s important to the other side,” says Neale. By studying your counterpart’s motivations, obstacles, and goals, you can frame your aims not as things they are giving up to you, but “as solutions to a problem that they have.”
Prepare, prepare, prepare
“The most important thing is to be well prepared,” says Weiss. That involves brainstorming in advance creative solutions that will work for both parties. For example, if the other side won’t budge from their price point, one of your proposals could be a longer-term contract that gives them the price they want but guarantees you revenue for a longer period of time. You also want to have data or past precedents at your disposal to help you make your case. If a potential client says they will pay you X for a job, having done your research allows you to counter with, “But the last three people you contracted with similar experience were paid Y.” Preparation gives you the information you need to “to get more of what you want,” says Neale.
Listen and ask questions
Two of the most powerful strategies you can deploy are to listen well, which builds trust, and pose questions that encourage the other party to defend their positions. “If they can’t defend it, you’ve shifted the power a bit,” says Weiss. If your boss says he doesn’t think you are the right addition to a new project, for instance, ask, “What would that person look like?” Armed with that added information, says Neale, “you can then show him that you have those attributes or have the potential to be that person.”
Keep your cool
One of the biggest mistakes a less powerful person can do in a negotiation is get reactive or take the other person’s negative tone personally. “Don’t mimic bad behavior,” says Weiss. If the other side makes a threat, and you retaliate with a threat, “you’re done.” Keep your side of the discussion focused on results, and resist the temptation to confuse yourself with the issue at hand, even if the negotiations involve assigning value to you or your product. “Know what your goals are and direct your strategy to that and not the other person’s behavior. You have to play the negotiation your way,” Weiss says.
Stay flexible
The best negotiators have prepared enough that they understand the “whole terrain rather than a single path through the woods,” says Weiss. That means you won’t be limited to a single strategy of gives and gets, but multiple maneuvers as the negotiation progresses. If the other party makes a demand, ask them to explain their rationale. Suggest taking a few minutes to brainstorm additional solutions, or inquire if they’ve ever been granted the terms they are demanding. Maintaining flexibility in your moves means you can better shape a solution that’s not only good for you, says Neale, but also makes them “feel like they’ve won.”
Principles to Remember
Do:
Put yourself in their shoes — it’s crucial to understand what’s important to the other side
Remember your own value — you are at the table for a reason
Ask questions — you’ll get valuable insight into their motivations and interests
Don’t:
Wing it — nothing beats good preparation
Depend on a single strategy — develop a range of responses to push the negotiation in your favor
Copy aggressive behavior — if they make threats or demands, stick to your goals