24/7 Wall St. will look at the Twitter posts at Reuters Biz, WSJ, Financial Times, CNN Money, MarketWatch, CNBC, and 24/7 Wall St. each day to see which stocks are most frequently mentioned. It is clear that in this area of social media these tweet are a sign of which companies the Twitter universe is interested in. These financial sites are followed by a combined 625,000 Twitter users which makes them a sizeable sample of Wall St.’s interests. In some cases, we will publish the actual tweets from the sites.

Among the most tweeted stocks on StockTwits are SPX, IMAX Corporation (NASAQ: IMAX), FAS, Ctrip.com International (NASDAQ: CTRP), DAX, and Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD).Economist: China says won’t dump Treasuries; surprise fall in German industry orders; US service firms grow weakly http://ow.ly/283ua

DailyFinance: Mortgage Loan Applications Rise on Refinance Demand http://bit.ly/axWxcO

DailyFinance: Sony Cuts Price in Latest Round of E-Reader Wars http://bit.ly/bumG47

Yahoo! Finance: California Pension Funds in Big Trouble http://yhoo.it/9pwKpL

MarketWatch: Bond insurer Ambac gets listing warning from NYSE http://on.mktw.net/drf5pd

CNN Money: Dollar rebounds on uncertain economic outlook http://bit.ly/c3gJ2J

Reuters Biz: EU bank watchdogs set to detail stress tests http://link.reuters.com/feb36m

Reuters Biz: BP boss Hayward in MidEast talks as relief well advances http://link.reuters.com/pag36m

Douglas A. McIntyre

But after looking through the form 4 filings in the Edgar database it showed that there were insiders at Ambac who participated in the offering with them buying shares.  From what we tallied up it appears to be more than $600,000.00 on almost 100,000 shares in purchases.These may not be all of the purchases as more form 4 filings may come Monday, but here are some of them showing who acquired how many shares in the offering:

• Chairman & CEO Michael Callen bought 25,000 shares;
• Director Thomas C. Theobald bought 20,000 shares;
• Director Henry D G Wallace bought 10,000 shares;
• EVP Douglas Renfield-Miller bought 10,000 shares
• Director Jill Considine bought 10,000 shares;
• Director David Wallis bought 6,250 shares;
• SVP Gregg Bienstock bought 6,000 shares;
• EVP John Uhlein bought 5,000 shares;
• CFO Sean Leonard bought 1,000 shares.

For whatever it is worth, CEO Michael Callen noted in a CNBC interview that Ambac had ample cash to pay claims for more than the current environment and earnings are assured for two years on its portfolio.  Filings show that new business generated so far in 2008 has been at a standstill.

Insider buying is usually hailed by Wall Street and critics have a hard time in continuing to bash a company when management plunks down its own cash to buy shares.  We don’t want to sound like disappointed brats, but as these were priced at $6.75 this total dollar amount just doesn’t exactly ring out the sounds of a major show of force.  Wanting more and more is unfortunately just the way of Wall Street.  Either way and regardless of the size, it is at least good to see management put more skin in the game.  That’s even more of the case when you consider how painful the game at Ambac has been and how long this road is going to be.

Jon C. Ogg
March 8, 2008

We have noted before, as have many others, that this is a mere dance right now that is nothing short of a game to avoid a sudden financial collapse.  It’s almost like the Treasury hiring out counterfeiters to print $1Trillion to put into circulation so that it doesn’t have to officially count the funds as being in the money supply.

We still think some of these mergers will be mandated rather than preferred.  Is there a more appropriate day than Leap Day to put this out?  Maybe April 1.  The good news is that Ambac stock is now up on the day.  Maybe stock buyers are getting to buy stock with that counterfeit money.  We don’t want to see a market crash or a recession that turns into a depression either.  But some serious games are being played in the system right now, and all the players know it.

Jon C. Ogg
February 29, 2008

MBIA is trading up roughly 12% to $17.50 and Ambac is trading up over 15% at $13.50 in pre-market trading.  We noted before how "mergers may be mandated rather than preferred" and this would fall right into that coup and conspiracy.  The counterparty risks are just too severe if one of these were to fail entirely.  Goldman Sachs recently outlined the values of potential packages.

Forming this consortium may be the banks saving their own skin rather than them just coaxing a financial opportunity.

Jon C. Ogg
February 1, 2008