[Avodah] day trading

[Zev Sero]

On 6/10/2011 9:41 AM, Micha Berger wrote:
> What would come up more commonly and is straightforward ribis is a
> corporate bond on a Jewishly-owned coporation. In fact, the difference
> between bond coupons and stock dividends parallels that between ribis
> and heter isqa.

You can solve this by selling the bonds just before the interest payment
is due, or else by only investing in derivatives based on the bond itself.

QSA says there's no issur ribis in the secondary market on shtaros, and
describes a simple way to structure a "loan" to take advantage of this:
1. Reuven and Levi write cheques to each other, for $11K each, each
dated a year from now.  No problem here, because the two cheques are of
equal value and cancel each other out.
2. Reuven sells Levi's cheque to Shimon for $10K, reflecting its current
value.
3. Shimon then turns to Levi and swaps his cheque for Reuven's; no
problem since they're of exactly equal value.  Levi tears his cheque up
and walks away; Shimon is now holding Reuven's postdated cheque for $11K,
which he deposits when it falls due, thus earning 10% on his investment.

It seems to me that the same principle can be trivially applied to bonds.

-- 
Zev Sero        If they use these guns against us once, at that moment
zev at sero.name   the Oslo Accord will be annulled and the IDF will
                 return to all the places that have been given to them.
		                            - Yitzchak Rabin