Market-Timing Was Very Good to Michael Sassano
The Street.com - January 16, 2004
By Matthew Goldstein Senior Writer

A person familiar with Sassano said Flynn's group at CIBC specialized in using credit derivatives to arrange financing for hedge funds. Credit derivatives are specialized financial instruments that are used to mitigate specific forms of credit risk by hedge fund or other speculators.

Janet Tavakoli, a structured finance consultant, said hedge funds increasingly have been relying on credit derivatives to boost their leverage, a practice that enables them to increase the return on their investment without putting in additional capital or money.

This link is to the corrected article. In the January 12 article, TheStreet.com incorrectly characterized Sassano's activities in funds managed by JW Seligman. According to sources, Sassano helped market-time the funds, but without a formal arrangement with the fund company. TheStreet.com regrets the error. (Corrected Jan. 16)


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Janet Tavakoli is the president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, a Chicago-based firm that provides consulting to financial institutions and institutional investors. Ms. Tavakoli has more than 20 years of experience in senior investment banking positions, trading, structuring and marketing structured financial products. She is a former adjunct professor of derivatives at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. She is the author of: Credit Derivatives & Synthetic Structures (John Wiley & Sons, 1998, 2001), Structured Finance & Collateralized Debt Obligations (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Janet Tavakoli's book on the global financial meltdown is Dear Mr. Buffett: What An Investor Learns 1,269 Miles From Wall Street (Wiley 2009).

Clients of Tavakoli Structured Finance have the benefit of proprietary consultation, which is not available in any other paid or public forum. Clients also commission proprietary research and analysis.

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