Morgan Stanley, the second-largest U.S. securities firm by market value after Goldman, was optimistic in June when CFO David Sidwell told analysts that ``the current market plays to our strengths'' and that ``concerns early in the quarter about whether issues in the subprime market were going to spread dissipated.'' Unhedged Loans By the end of August, Morgan Stanley's credit-trading revenue had dropped by more than $1 billion from the second quarter, and the New York-based firm's losses in fixed income were exacerbated by a decision not to hedge its financing commitments to LBOs. ``They're going to think a lot harder about the bets that they take on from here until the end of the year,'' said Helena Ocampo, an analyst at Sentinal Asset Management in Montpelier, Vermont, which manages $4.4 billion and holds shares of Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Merrill. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aFlf202XPlQs&refer=home At some point they REALLY need to be punished for such irresponsible behavior ! Maybe the next stock holder meeting is the right place to address such "problems" publicly...