Commentary - 02/23/2009

Duke & Duke, Alive and Well By Another Name: State Street

This commentary was provoked by today's Investment News article titled SPDR Gold Trust surpasses $30B in assets.

The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) exchange traded fund has surpassed $30 billion in assets, making it the second-largest ETF by assets in the world, State Street Global Markets LLC and World Gold Trust Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the World Gold Council of London, said today.

The largest ETF in terms of assets is State Street’s SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which has more than $60 billion in assets.

First, take a look at a comparision of the last five years of GLD and SP500:

If you don't know the movie Trading Places (after all, it was released in 1983, 24 years ago) Duke & Duke was the name of the investment firm that bragged about how they generated their income.

Relevent to this commentary is the following dialouge from the script:

Mortimer Duke:
Now, some of our clients are speculating
that the price of gold will rise in the future.
We have other clients who are speculating
that the price of gold is going to fall.

They've placed their orders with us
and we buy or sell their gold for them.

Randolph Duke:
Tell him the good part.

Mortimer Duke:
The good part is that no matter whether
our clients make money, or lose money,
Duke & Duke get the commissions.

Well, what do you think, Valentine?

Billy Ray Valentine:
Sounds to me like you guys
are a couple of bookies.

Mortimer to Randolph:
I told you he'd understand.
Here are the links to the major holders of State Street, JP Morgan Chase, and Barrick Gold:
Notice the commonality of major holders? Very interesting, to say the least.
Who says our financial markets are not manipulated?

NOTE:
It is also important that Trading Places was produced by Aaren Russo, who also produced (released in 2006) America: Freedom to Facism.
I think the man was trying hard to tell us something.

Sometimes The Dragon Wins, but it's everyone else that suffers.


Symbol Name Of Corporation
STT

Major
Holders
State Street Corp. (As of 30-Jun-2008) (As of 30-Jun-2007)
Top 10 Institutional HoldersSharesPct.Value
Price (T.Rowe) Associates Inc25,419,7325.89$1,626,608,650
State Street Corporation18,804,1294.36$1,203,276,214
FMR LLC (Fidelity)18,163,4344.21$1,162,278,141
Massachusetts Financial Services Co - Other17,017,8213.94$1,088,970,365
Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd16,351,2013.79$1,046,313,351
Wellington Management Company, LLP14,148,6683.28$905,373,265
Vanguard Group, Inc. (The)13,395,7583.10$857,194,554
Capital Research Global Investors9,575,0002.22$612,704,250
Wells Fargo & Company7,359,6241.70$470,942,339
General Electric Company6,552,0491.52$419,265,615
% of Shares Held by All Insider and 5% Owners:0%
Top 10 [1.3%] of 792 Institutional Holders Control34.01%
Percentage of Barclays and "Associates" Control17.26%
NOTE: Vanguard manages three funds that control 2.63%.
T.Rowe Price manages two funds that controls 1.83%.
Therefore, the TOP 10 Major Holders control 38.47%, and
Barclays/Associates control 19.09% of State Street.

Symbol Name Of Corporation
JPM

Major
Holders
JP Morgan Chase Co. (As of 30-Jun-2008) (As of 30-Jun-2007)
Top 10 Institutional HoldersSharesPct.Value
Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd157,667,9994.59$5,409,589,045
AXA (Paris, France)140,498,8874.09$4,820,516,812
State Street Corporation131,086,9543.81$4,497,593,391
Vanguard Group, Inc. (The)107,840,9123.14$3,700,021,690
FMR LLC (Fidelity)97,127,1492.83$3,332,432,482
Davis Selected Advisers, LP74,560,8552.17$2,558,182,935
Morgan Stanley55,908,0161.63$1,918,204,028
Bank of New York Mellon Corporation54,224,8731.58$1,860,455,392
Capital Research Global Investors51,293,9001.49$1,759,893,709
Northern Trust Corporation42,740,5601.24$1,466,428,613
% of Shares Held by All Insider and 5% Owners:1%
Top 10 [0.7%] of 1373 Institutional Holders Control26.57%
Percentage of Barclays and "Associates" Control12.85%
NOTE: Vanguard manages four funds that control 2.97%.
Capital Group manages a fund that controls 1.49%.
Davis Advisers manages a fund that controls 0.96%.
Therefore, the TOP 10 Major Holders control 31.99% of JP Morgan Chase.

Symbol Name Of Corporation
ABX

Major
Holders
Barrick Gold Corp. (As of 30-Jun-2008) (As of 30-Jun-2007)
Top 10 Institutional HoldersSharesPct.Value
Capital World Investors 78,065,318 9.43%$3,551,972,000
FMR LLC (Fidelity)44,796,638 5.41%$2,048,397,000
Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd37,420,890 4.52%$1,702,655,000
Tradewinds Global Investors, LLC27,503,415 3.32%$1,251,405,000
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board 21,802,519 2.63%$1,001,642,000
Capital Guardian Trust Co 21,180,494 2.56%$964,360,000
NWQ Investment Management Co LLC20,367,528 2.46%$926,723,000
Blackrock Group Limited16,028,640 1.94%$729,304,000
Harris Financial Corp18,698,250 2.26%$686,973,000
Lord Abbett & Co Llc 14,560,096 1.76%$662,484,000
% of Shares Held by All Insider and 5% Owners:0%
Top 10 [2.4%] of 412 Institutional Holders Control36.29%
Percentage of Barclays and "Associates" Control14.50%

© 2009 by Edward Ulysses Cate
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