Jas,
I guess I struggle in that you say that you don't know how they do it, but morals are not top of the list. I know plenty of people that work at some of the biggest name investment banks and most of them are very moral nice people that you would enjoy doing business with.
My question is where would AMRN be if Goldman (or another investment bank) hadn't assisted them in doing the secondary offering that raised about $600 million a year or 2 ago. Their $600 million in the bank would be close $0 and the companies future would be in jeopardy.
Have I met traders that would sell their mother for the right trade? Absolutely. Do investment banks charge dearly for their services and have good margins? Absolutely. However for our system of capitalism they are required to raise money and provide markets and liquidity. Look what happened to the liquidity in the bond market when laws changed and the investment banks wouldn't hold the big inventory they previously had.
In terms of selling puts and calls that is a very dangerous strategy unless they are covered in some way. What about the poor guy that wrote the uncovered TSLA calls for $1000 strike price when the stock was trading around $600. He probably thought he would pocket a nice premium but is on the hook for hundreds of $ per share multiplied by 100 shares if he only wrote 1 contract.
You can tell that the investment banks didn't know what was going to happen ahead of time because the stock price didn't have any unusual trading before Du Du's ruling. As far as the strategies they use they generally are well known. Take the CFA exam, which anyone can do, and you will learn the strategies as well. But options are a zero sum game played by lots of smart people and loads of leverage.
I just hate seeing a group vilified for some bad apples. Are all Europeans bad just because Spain had Franco? Attorneys told a rough ride on this site a while ago before many posters stood up for them.
I guess I'll end this ramble with "What is the definition of a Shame? A bus load of lawyers going off a cliff with an empty seat". Sorry attorneys, couldn't help myself
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