“Muppets” are the uninformed general public (or “sheeple”)—the customers who seek expert financial advice, but are often fleeced in the process. On March 14, 2012, the New York (NY) Times printed an Op-Ed piece by Greg Smith, an executive director at the financial firm of Goldman Sachs, titled “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs.” Smith wrote that he had seen “five different managing directors refer to their own clients as ‘muppets.’” Although “Muppet” puppet characters are usually viewed favorably, calling financial clients “muppets” (puppets) is a derogatory use of the term.
 
A “muppet trade” is a financial trade by a financially unsophisticated muppet; it used to be called a “sucker trade.” “Muppet trade of the day” was cited on a UK financial blog on December 21, 2006. “I’m waiting for the ‘muppet’ deal” was written by Lehman Brothers European real estate analyst Mike Prew for a UK property blog on September 19, 2008. Million Dollar Traders was broadcast on BBC2 in January 2009; “That’s a muppet trade” was said by one of the traders.
 
It would appear that “muppet” and “muppet trade” were used in the United Kingdom since at least 2006. The New York Times article on Goldman Sachs in March 2012 made “muppet” an immediate addition to the financial slang lexicon in the United States.
 
 
LiveCharts.co.uk
kevinmcm - 21 Dec 06 - 10:09 - 530 of 9681
Scalped cable from 1.9693 earlier. Now pressing 1.9671 again which needs to hold here. Could move to around 1.9717 if support holds again.
Muppet trade of the day is shorting $/yen at 118.31 and taking 2 pips on it
 
Property View
building.co.uk
City View: Mike Prew - I’m waiting for the ‘muppet’ deal
19 September 2008
Which REIT will carry out a lousy bottom-of-the-cycle deal?
(...)
REITs are still selling assets – we are now looking for the bottom-of-the-cycle ‘muppet’ trade – but some are preparing for the pooled fund redemption ‘December sales’.
 
REIT CEOs are still not investing their own money in their shares, but there is clear stakebuilding – some strategic – and mergers and acquisitions prospects rising.
(...)
Postscript:
Lehman Brothers European real estate analyst Mike Prew wrote this column two days before the bank collapsed.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Million dollar traders
Publisher: [S.l.] : BBC2, 2009.
Series: Million dollar traders, broadcast 12-Jan-2009 - 27-Jan-2009
Edition/Format: DVD video : English
 
Forex Factory
Mr Hatch
Aug 31, 2011 2:09pm
Quoting needpips
took a muppet long at 4370…(nap time was refreshing)
 
it’s less a muppet trade than you might think.
 
Forex Factory
Sti
Dec 22, 2011 12:21pm | Post# 3383
Bumpa, it has something “Lion King” to it, don’t know why
 
speaking about making uncontrollable associations, the other night I was watching an old show, apparantly airing on BBC2 somewhere in 2008. It was called “Million Dollar Traders”... some show about rookies from the street and being put in the chair of a trader’s desk.
 
Well, the main character there was Dutch, and being Dutch myself I know one thing for a fact, Dutch and wooden Clogs are stereotype.
 
The other thing I noticed was that at one point I heard the phrase “That’s a muppet trade”
 
Twitter
careyz‏
@careyz  
Muppet trade of the day! Stolper Alert: Goldman Says To Go Long EURUSD With 1.30 Target http://bit.ly/N5AylD
10:40 AM - 2 Aug 12
   
Share Crazy
Game Over
Posted by Lucian Miers on Mar 21, 2013 01:06 PM
(...)
The moral of the story is that when management warn you that their shares could be worthless, pay attention. When potential bidders are talking directly to a company’s creditors it means that the equity in that company is worthless. Finally, do not be put off when some smart sounding entity (and they don’t come smarter sounding than Goldman) buys a stake in a clearly worthless company. Even Goldman can make a muppet trade from time to time.
   
banniNation.com
Sure glad I bought lots of gold, just like the ponyhedge articles and ads told me to do.! 
czarangelus
2013-04-15 08:13:17.0 l
l.darte: I have a sense that’s there’s some market manipulation going on. On the one hand, you have central banks hording gold in record amounts, even at inflated prices. On the other hand you have various financial ‘experts’ telling you to dump gold. Something is fishy here.
 
It’s the Muppet Trade just like Goldman Sachs called it. You talk down assets you want to buy (or demonstrably buy in the case of gold) and talk up trash you want to get off your books. And people just look at whatever the market price is today v. yesterday and make their decisions that way. Time and time again they take the morons to the cleaners and most people aren’t capable of seeing how they’re being taken for a ride.
 
Zero Hedge
Early Exuberance Fades As Stocks Slip And Bond Yields Dip
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/01/2013 16:10 -0400
(...)
COMMENTS
chump666
Mon, 07/01/2013 - 19:43
Gold was oversold on technicals, short term bounce.  EUR has the ECB back (and Fed), USD bought and sold on hedging out of Asia, will go bid if oil goes to 100 (China/Asian oilers will try and knock the price down), AUD is sell on rallies, stocks are heavy on geopolitical, yields.  BlackRock called the ‘sell’ on EM equities and gold, sans JPMorgan go long commodities (muppet trade).