but with that wealth oftentimes comes the thinking that you are isn't that righter or better than everybody around you. that kind of thinking rarely ends well. good lesson to look at. before we go, the market once again closing at an all-time high. the dow jones industrial average uncharted territory at 14,662 with a gain of almost 90 points. the nasdaq, s&p 500 also higher. s&p at an all-time, 1570. have a great night, everybody. i'll see you again on "closing bell" tomorrow. "fast money" begins right now. the nasdaq markets new york city's times square, i'm melissa lee. fools gold. prices fall to four-week low after it is the end of the gold era. the firm's head of commodities research joins us live to discuss this bold call. getting active. icon were the top in activist invest coerce take a position next in how you can make money on their coattails. and tech troubles from apple to facebook. the sector hasn't been able the gain any momentum this year.

where you should be placing your bets right now. but first, let's get to the traders, get to the top trades of the day. beakers, kick it off with you. still in the bear suit? >> absolutely still in the bear suit. look at bonds today. look at the russell 2000. all of those underperformed. most of my bearishness comes from europe, and that is why my top trade for today is to buy gold, down $25. i think people are way too complacent about europe. they're getting into a -- lulled into a false sense of security because spreads haven't blown out. but they're not going to blow out because they told you it's safer to be in government bonds. >> so you're look forward to the softgen guy coming on? >> i'll ask him very polite questions. >> why you think he is baloney. >> exactly. and why he is wrong. >> tim? >> i think beaks is right to show some caution. my caveat is today is the first day of a quarter. it's a lot of allocation going on. the europeans dot back from the easter bunny dropped some pretty nice eggs across the continent,

so they get an extension on cyprus. it's a lot better. volumes are very, very strong. so it felt like assets were being placed around. gold is a place we're going to talk about later in the show that i think there is obviously assets flowing out. but i don't think you run for the hills. i do think the boe, ecb coming up on thursday you have to pay attention to and payroll on friday. i agree the u.s. bond market is what you want to watch. it had struggled trying to get through 183 on the ten-year. i'm not sure it gets through this week. >> people have been cries tri-ing to crisis monger all yearlong. i think gold is down for a reason. people are trying to buy that trade because they're trying to freak you out. but is really not working is the nongrowth trade. what i want to get involved with is growth. that's been working throughout the year. i want to buy something like a hotel stock. starwood, a stock we sold higher. so we want to take a day like today and buy it back. >> so you're looking forward to the softgen guy coming on and telling him he is full of baloney on his call. that should been very interesting.

>> isn't keith's call that you think gold is coming off? >> coming off. >> so -- >> the baloney -- the baloney trade is the baloney trade. at the end of the day, gold is coming down. so you'll start to see the sale side get bearish. gold has been up for 12 consecutive years. that's a big difference versus what you see today. i expect to see a little bit more of this at a slower pace than you expect. but gold going lower, not higher is any call. >> we have an auto heavy show. >> yes, we do. >> american axle, stocks had a nice run since november. it's basically been sideways. high over the last three years. but valuation is dirt cheap. the auto sales not great, but thing is definitely something going on in the positive domain in terms of american axle. so axl is my top. >> american ax could will be axle rose. >> just saying. it's an observation. tesla here. out a long anticipated announcement that had moved the stock earlier this week by the tune of 16% or so.

phil lebeau's got the details. phil? >> i'm sorry, melissa, tesla is starting a lease to own program. and essentially what this is going to be is for the model s car. here is how it's going to work. u.s. bank and wells fargo will finance the first 10% down payment for a model s. tesla says after that happens, for people who are credit worthy, their out of pocket monthly expense -- this is important, not just your monthly payment, but your out of pocket monthly expense when you factor in the cost of fuel, insurance, deappreciation will be less than $500 a month. that's an important distinction, because it sounds like the monthly payment is still going to be over $500 a month. after 36 months, if you have decided this is not right for me, i want to unload my model s, they are guaranteeing that the residual value on that model s will be equal to the residual value of mercedes s class. 10 that's the details behind the tesla lease to own program. what will be interesting,

melissa, is whether or not this spurs new buyers, new people coming into the showroom. the key being that $500 per month, because that's really the threshold cut off where people say if i can get it down under $500 a month, i'm going buy one. now that f that is $550, who nose. >> how do they get to that less than $500 a month unless they're guaranteeing some sort of interest rate, phil? >> well, it's going to be a guarantee of the interest rate. and the wording there is factoring in the cost of fuel, depreciation, insurance. i mean all of those things in there, they're counting on the person at home saying, well, listen, if i were to go out and buy a standard vehicle, i'd be spending $85 a month on fuel. well, i'm not spending that. so i'll take that off the cost that it's going to be associated with the model s. so we still have to find out exactly what is going to happen in terms of interest rates and some of the other details. in fact, there is a conference call we're going to hop on here shortly. it will be interesting to see

how much this spurs sales. >> it will be interesting to see if the typical tesla buyer is dependent on financing in order to buy that car which is what, $70,000? >> 62 and 72. they have already said they're not going to be offering the 52,000, the lowest entry level with the lowest battery portion, they're not going to be offering that in the future. >> phil lebeau, thank you so much. bring us the details as you get them off the conference call which has gotten under way six minutes ago. very familiar with this particular industry, steven, great to have you with us. >> thanks for having me. >> in terms of tesla, do you think this sort of financing program will actually spur buyers enough so that it can actually gain some scale here where they're selling more than a handful of cars a year? >> of course, we've only had a few seconds to think about this. but i always thought of tesla going for consumers for whom price is no object. now they seem to be going for consumers for whom every penny matters. i don't understand that dynamic exactly. i never thought tesla was going

to be a mass market product. i don't think that what is happening today necessarily changes that. i think at best a niche product and the jury is still out on the whole concept. >> and i think the supercharged vehicle is much more interesting and might get them up there. thing is a segue really into the discussion we see with the car sales out today, and what we have seen out of ford and chrysler and their ability to actually beat up the japanese in terms of delivering a more fuel efficient car, how we're changing this country. it's price point independent. can you comment on that? it certainly seems like an exciting time. >> it is an exciting time. i think you see american automakers competitive again. as you say, they're able to deliver products that compete on fuel efficiency, compete on styling, compete on reliability, really compete across the board. even chrysler, which back in 2009 we had virtually given up for dead is diagnose terrifically well. >> steve, what do you think about a great american capitalist like elon musk competing with government-supported big auto? >> you mean in terms of general motors or government supported

big auto? >> the bailout money. >> first of all, they have repaid that bailout money. i think he is in effect government supported big auto now or small auto because he got a very large loan from the department of energy to finance his activities. so ironically, he is the one that is enjoying more government subsidy at the moment than any other carmakers. >> would we have been better off, we being the taxpayer if that money went elsewhere, instead of picking a winner in the marketplace saying tesla is the way to go. this is how we're going to invest in greener cars? >> i think when the dust settles, there will be real questions about a lot of the programs that were put in place back in 2009 as part of the stimulus program. i don't believe government is very good at picking the winners. i believe government can provide some incentives like the $7500 tax credit you get for buying an electric vehicle. but i think we're seeing the fact that writing these big loans to solyndra, to companies like that is probably not the best way for government to operator going forward. >> you know, in this tesla

announcement, they're now tying to it the mercedes s class, the value of that. clearly you can see there might be some issues with that in your experience, has there ever been anything like this where it seems to me if people don't like mercedes anymore, now tesla, they just bet the company on a mercedes s class. >> i'm not sure they have necessarily done that what they're basically trying to say from the few minutes we had to think about this is it was a very niche buy for people who were very green oriented for whom price was no object, wanted the next coolest thing. and now they're basically trying to say we're willing to go head to head against a company like mercedes. so to that extent, it is a strategy shift. and i have my doubts as to whether that market will prove to be as broad as it is for a mercedes, regardless of what they do about pricing. >> steven, i know you're not a financial analyst per se, but of course you're very intimately familiar with the industry overall. if you had to invest -- make an investment based on product portfolio and just competitiveness overall, which automaker would you choose, or

which country's automakers would you choose? >> i think you have to look at everything as a price to value, not just who has the best products or who might be best positioned, but whose stock is also the best value. and i think this is still an unnatural and inappropriate overhang over general motors stock relative to its value. it trades at a significant discount to ford. i don't think that's warranted. i think gm is a great company. it has some things to prove over the next few months with its next product launches. but if you want to look for a great company with a stock that i believe is undervalued, that's where i would be looking. >> stephen, great to have you with us. thanks for coming by. stephen ratner of the will let group. give us a trade here. >> the one name i go back is borg warner. exactly what timmy is talking about in superchargers and drive trains. and i think american axle, the top trade when we started the show is interesting as well. i sort of stay away from the automakers. i'm not in love with gm. i heard what steven just said. i think you stay away from the makers. i think you go downstream. >> we love fiat. back to 2009, thing is a company

that was essentially given away. i mean chrysler. and i think they actually have an asset here, if you look at the numbers that came out today. chrysler best sales since 2007. the dodge which i know guy was driving in high school is now a cool car. and more importantly, probably at least right now for the stock price, sorry, guy, they're actually selling cars. they were at a positive. so if you look at a company that i think is misunderstood and a company with a lot of event. risk and it isn't about the buying of the chrysler stick, take a look at fiat, because this company is cheap. >> we're watching tesla shares in the after market session. it is trading lower right now. but keep in mind it gained 16% on monday in anticipation of this announcement, which turned out to be providing financing for buyers. meantime we got some breaking news on jcpenney. let's go to courtney reagan with the details. >> that's right. details in the latest proxy filing for jcpenney. ceo ron johnson made $1.9 million in his compensation for 2012, compared to 53.3 the year prior, though $52 million of that was in stock.

in an interesting note here, $344,000 or so of that go to personal use of the corporate jet there has ban lot of discussion about the fact that ceo ron johnson does still live in california, dedespite the fact that jcpenney is headquartered in texas. the other ceo -- excuse me, the other named executives did not receive a cash bonus. and if i could just read a couple of lines, it's important here from the proxy. none of our named executive officers received an annual cash incentive for fiscal 2012 due to the company's financial results versus its goals. our ceo received 44% of his target cash compensation base salary only, and other officers received collectively 55% of their aggregate target cash compensation base salary only. melissa? >> all right. thank you very much, courtney reagan. obviously a big pay cut in terms of his pay package for ron johnson. $1.9 million in 2012 versus

53.3. is this one you can invest in? can you see the forest for the trees in the jcpenney tunnel? >> one of this things you want to see is him gone. >> or take a dollar. you earned $53 million the year before. >> steve jobs said to him point-blank right out of the box, why you doing this? at the end of the day, impression is as impression does. his job security is in trouble, and now his compensation is evidently in trouble. >> the problem you have with jcpenney, even if everything worked, the stores worked, everything is fantastic, it might be too late for the company. >> if he said i'm going to take a dollar in pay, would you feel a little bit better about the story? >> no. it sounds like a dollar more than he thinks he zirvegs a dollar not well spent. all right. coming up next on "fast," how to play like the big boys. look at where the world's top activist investors may be taking stakes, next. and why it may be the end of an

era for gold. back right after this. we went out and asked people a simple question:

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i'm josh lipton. news here on verizon and vodafone. let me bring you up to speed. verizon is now saying it does not currently have any intention to merge with or buy vodafone, either alone or in conjunction with others. that's in response to press reports. verizon is saying, however, that it would still be a willing buyer of vodafone's 45% share of their verizon wireless venture. vodafone down about 4% in the after hours. melissa, back to you. >> thank you very much, josh lipton. if you listened to david faber's fine reporting on this whole subject, you would not have think this is very likely anyway. >> no way. it's a concept story. it's a story that makes a lot of sense because verizon and vodafone's domestic assets make sense. they're struggling. at&t would love vodafone's international assets. i own voda play as an emerging market cellular play. big game in india, turkey, southeast asia. take a look at vodafone, especially if it's in play. but on its own merits. because this deal is a very complicated deal that i think it would -- it would never get

through in the way it's set up now. >> all right. let's move on here. technology extending its 2012 run as one of the worst performing sectors on the s&p 500 into 2013. but it is poised for a breakout. let's bring in eric sheridan, analyst at ubs. he initiated coverage of 14 tech stocks and likes google, aol and his only sell is on groupon. yahoo on this initiation of coverage touched a new 52-week high. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> a lot of the reasons behind your positive rating on yahoo has been outlined by a lot of other analysts on the street. is there a catalyst here at which point we can expect some of these things to materialize? >> well, you know, we expect catalyst over the next three to 12 months for yahoo. both on the operating front and on the asset value front. alibaba group we did some deep dive in the report today around valuation. we still think there is a wide range of from where the last transaction alibaba group was done to upside to the case of

albie live baba group which yahoo owns 24%. also yahoo japan, our ubs analyst in japan upgraded his price target to 50,000 yen. and to boot on the operational side, we're very big fans of the new management team at yahoo. we think marissa meyer and her team get where the internet is going, a problem yahoo has suffered from in the last couple of years. we like what she is doing on the acquisition front and we like the way she is trying to reposition the business on core operation. >> the most interesting call that i see, and i love the yahoo call. but how do you get to 945ish in google? that's at 17% gain from here. what are the factors that get you that 17% or so rise from current prices? >> sure. our numbers, you know, 14, 15 are above the street. 13 we see in line results with a bead on rev knew. but roughly in line. we think that google is becoming the internet sector leader. and therefore, you know, as we do channel checks, what we're

hearing from people is yahoo -- google's advertising business can grow 16, 17, 18% a year for the foreseeable future. you know, as they introduce new products, as they introduce pricing around new products and start to monetize asset, especially around the android ecosystem, we're very comfortable that our above street estimates come the fruition. and to get to 945 one year out when people will start looking at 2014 estimates, you need to roll forward estimates on numbers just continuing to move up for google as they execute. >> let's talk about the one stock you do not like, and that would be shares of groupon. got slaughtered today. down by almost 6%. and you see the price target even lower from here. 440. you say it's an unproven business model. you don't like the push into selling physical goods. what happens to groupon do you think? >> it's a business in flux. until there is a ceo in place we think there are a lot of questions around what the future business plan is for groupon. they are pivoting their business from daily deals, which we know

has sort of started to slow and now decline in some of the more mature markets and pivoting into goods and local commerce and local merchant infrastructure plays that require more investment, more feet on the street, and possibly lower margins as this mix occurs. so until a new ceo is there, which think any talk of margin improvements or improvements on revenue and around what they're trying to do on the global assets they've assembled is premature. >> eric, great to speak with you. thanks for your time. >> thank you so much, guys. >> do you want to talk about google or groupon? >> groupon i agree with him completely. we've already gone over that story. so google probably is the most interesting one. guy pointed out if you have quite a bit of room for this thing to move here. and it seems to be a love stock at this point, which concerns me. >> yeah. >> up at these levels. so for me, if i'm not google, but if i were, i would certainly be using any strength here to take some off the table. >> does this feel like apple in that it seemed like everybody on

the street loved the stock? every investor wanted to or owns the stock currently, and there is no incremental buyer? >> you can make that argument. i don't think it's the same thing. i think apple products become ubiquitous. google is still sort november this brave new world. in that regard i think google has further upside. the one i like the most continues to be yahoo. and i think his price target might be a little low. i think yahoo out of all of them might have the most beta left. >> pops and drops, the big movers of the day. a drop for u.s. steel, down 4%. guy? >> thing goes to what keith has been saying for a long time. i look at it differently. here is u.s. steel levels. we saw the levels in mar of '09. u.s. steel is exactly the same price as the march of '09 lows. some people look at it as the mining sector deterioration. i look at it as maybe the global economy isn't as strong as people think it is. >> gnc. >> and upgraded deutsche bank today. probably has a technically move up to 45. i use 36 as my stop in this one.

>> a pop here for humana, up 5%. keith? >> huge day on this medicare news. it wasn't just hume nana. all this stuff went straight up to the right. a lot of people were front running this information. this is why health care is up 17% for the year to date. >> a hop here for urban outfitter, up 4%. mike co. >> yesterday an update on same store sales. they're indicating it's probably going to be in the high single digit, which means they're probably on track to see double-digit games in eps to about $1.92 a share. this is definitely good news and the stock is still safe here. >> gfi down 5%. >> gfi is doing things differently. started to restructure. this stock has been destroyed. on a valuation of less than three times, i think you can take a shot here. this is a stock we've held for the last 15% down. it doesn't feel too good. but i think they have started to decouple and restructure this asset, and i'm not that scared about the gold price.

>> a drop here for cord lee passengers. after weighing their options, samoa airlines has decided to charge customers based on size. the airline says it will charge per kilogram for passengers and their baggage. and in a related story, some airlines are making the little boys room a little smaller. delta is installing new bathrooms which would be more compact than the current three by three foot standard. >> wow. >> why samoa airlines? are they trying to say something? is there a cultural thing going on that we need to know about? >> maybe they run smaller airplanes. >> i don't want to go there. i'm just asking a question. keith? >> why don't we put it out to the twitter verse and go break. how is that. coming up next on "fast," michael hague joins us live and the controversial call on gold. why this could be the end of an rear. more "fast" straight ahead. >> "fast money" means trading. everybody's got to bring their

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welcome back to "fast money." we are live at the nasdaq marketplace. we have seen suspicious flames ahead of the rate care change announced yesterday just before the bell. health insurance stocks breaking out as the government tabled a proposal cut and instead increased the amount they would pay insurance companies. mike, you noticed unusual volume in united health in particular. we did see the stocks move prior to the release of the announcement. >> it wasn't just the options. the options traded many times their average volume yesterday and today. probably 26.5,000 calls, over third,000 today, versus less than 9,000 on average, which is certainly interesting. one of the active was april 65s. people were paying about a

dollar for those things, expecting the stock would be up another 6.5% in the next two weeks. we saw it in of the other related names as well. >> keith, you're in these names? >> yeah. short unh. it was an awful day. look at this thing. it was more awful this morning. the thing was up 9% in the straight line. in hedge fund speak, we call that the corn cobb. it's also a problem if you look at how people were trafficking. >> nobody is going to ask what that means? hello. >> let him finish his statement. >> what is the corn cob? >> you threw it out there. >> you threw it out there. now we're all wondering. >> we might have to do a whole show. >> corn cob scares me actually. >> it sounds like not anything good. >> it's a problem. it's a problem. when you have one of these, you have a problem. and i had a problem today. >> sitting on a donut. >> this is whoa happens. >> too far down. >> but look, the biggest issue, first of all, they have made it illegal for people in congress

to trade on inside information. now what they do is they actually create super special little consulting firms that give you the look-see that way and then they pay the congressmen in time. this is what is going on with these things. these things are raging to the upside before the news, and there you get it. >> they should make it illegal to corn cob. just like that. boom. >> amazing. >> i have been violated. >> oh. we got to move on here. >> moving on. >> gold prices have doubled since 2007, but today the precious metal settled at its lowest level in nearly four weeks, far from those historic highs we saw in late 2011. so will the metal with safe haven appeal continue to mark the declined of an ending era? micahel haigh, it's great to have you with us. this is a note that has been talked about a lot during the trading day today. >> thanks for having me. yeah. we have been bearish gold for a couple of months now. coincidentally, we put out our longer report today looking at the end of the gold era right

before we saw a 1.5% sell-off. but we wanted to reassess and reaffirm our outlook. and we have come to the decision that this really is the end of the gold era. >> $1500 announced on average for the year. 1375 an ounce by year's end. you say a crash would be not likely to happen. at the same time you're saying that gold is in bubble territory, which would imply if there is a run for the exits, that this run will be very ugly. is this how you see this end of the gold era unfolding? >> we see the trigger for the unfolding coming from the macro side. so let's step back and remember that gold -- i'm going to say something very simple, but very critical for gold relative to the rest of the commodity complex. what is considered to be the nonfundamentals for oil and grains and base metals are actually the fundamentals for gold. the trigger for gold decline we see is coming from the

nonfundamental side, real interest rate rises, stronger dollar, moderate gdp growth, et cetera. these things are going to provide a catalyst to the other elements of the gold market, which is etf investment and hedge fund flows to them react to that. so it's a macro-driven downdraft that the other elements are going to react to. >> hey, michael, brian kelly. so going to that, one of your critical assumptions is that the u.s. housing market and jobs market are going to continue to improve. >> yeah. >> what i'm curious about is how you've also are looking for interest rates to go higher. so have you done any analysis that show what happens to the job market and housing market as interest rates go up? because it seems to me that you might get some slowing of the economy which then would be positive for gold again. >> well, we've looked at rising interest rates relative to the commodity complex. and as a matter of fact, what you -- >> but what about housing? >> with the general economic outlook, rising interest rates are generally supportive of growth. in other words, these are a reflection of improved activity.

so, you know, when we see rising interest rates, i'm not talking about spiking interest rates, this is actually a positive for the economy, as it is for most commodities. gold is the exception. when you get rising interest rates, you actually start to see if you look over the last couple of decades, gold sell-off while the rest of the commodity complex actually increased because of increased prosperity and gdp growth. >> i want to get back to the role of the etfs here. in your note you did rye where i that 2500 tons of gold are held around the world. etf holdings outnumber only two central bank out there, the u.s. and germany. when this end comes, it is going to be orderly, disorderly, or are the etf and the hedge fund holders going to be the first ones to trigger it? >> well, the etf investment community tends to be a little more sticky than the hedge fund community. if you look at the volatility of holdings with the etf investment community versus hedge funds, over the last three or four years, etf volatility in terms of the holdings has been around 17% compared to say hedge funds which are north of 100% in terms

of volatility. so we've already started to see hedge funds not being shy of taking the short position. remember, they haven't been net short since 2002. but their short positions have been increasing month after month. we've seen relative the last two or three years, record low net length held by hedge fund. this is going to be very much a downward pressure on the market. the etf community has started to unwind over the course of this year. we've seen about a 6% outflow from the etf world. these interest elements that are really going to drive the market down based on the macro outlet. >> michael, great to have you with us. thanks for joining us. micahel haigh of societe generale. and that's 6% outflow from etf is 140 tons this year. so beakers. one is short gold against palladium. >> i guess you could probably be long play might be the better trade if you're believing that

the global economy is getting a lot stronger. the problem i have is this kind of strikes me back in august of 1979, business week ran on its cover the death of equities. and if you look at what equities did since that point in time, they absolutely screamed. >> are you comparing softgen to a dying magazine? >> i have to finish. softgen is not business week magazine. michael has done a lot more research on this than probably business week did at this point in time. but when you say something like the end of the gold era, that's a big statement. >> i think gold climbs a great way to do it. owning platinum. if you go to 2008, if you look at the real strike in gold prices they happened from the crisis. the gold is 12 years long which means it's not going to fall out bed. 2008, '09, we know what happened. gold is being rallied by central banks around the world into that event. and that was a catalyst to a spike. that's not unwinding overnight. having said that, platinum over gold for sure. coming up next, the top three calls of the day. a look at whether they are

signaling a new entry point for investors and where the next big activist investor could take a position. we comb through the most well-known names after carl icahn reveals a stake in nuance. much more "fast" straight ahead. l presentations on research. and development. some new members of the team will be introduced. the chairman emeritus will distribute his usual wisdom. and you? well, you're the chief life officer. you just need the right professional to help you take charge. ♪ arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back to "fast money." we are live at the nasdaq market site in new york city. investors are getting more active. there have been 2113 defilings in 2013 so far. our next guest expects that to grow in the second quarter. ken squier manages the 13 deactivist fund which makes money by betting with some of the biggest activists out there. ken, welcome to the show. and of course we have to start off with carl icahn. i mean, as active as ever and yesterday revealing a passive 9.2% stake in nuance communications. it's a passive stake. so what do you think is up his sleeve? >> breaking news. carl icahn can be a passive investor. >> what? >> you heard it here first. it's really just -- it's an investment that was brought to him by brett icahn and david schechter who manage money for him. they brought him netflix, hain, they've been tremendously successful. this is a situation much like netflix. netflix could have been a 13 g. he really wasn't active there.

he likes management. he likes the company, as he does with nuance. and he thinks again, like netflix, it's a paradigm shift where products are going to start using this voice recognition, whether it's automobiles or cell phones. and it's basically a secular change that they want to be in the front of. >> so when he has a passive investor, he is not going to launch any sort of proxy battles obviously. he cannot. but at the same time, could he work with management knowing that he likes management, he likes the path they're on, and hey, i'm a friendly investor who wants to see your company succeed? >> sure there is tons of investors from portfolio managers and fidelity or any of the big mutual funds that talk to management and file 13 gs. the point is he is not trying to influence management. he is not trying to agitate for change. but certainly if you are supporting management, he can be a 13-g filer. >> this other portfolio that is run by his son brett and his son's partner has been very successful. are you finding that that is a

source of -- i don't know if they file 13-ds, but they seem to have made some pretty good picks. >> it's under icahn. they file -- you can't tell unless you know, unless you're in the know whether it's -- whose position it is and where it came from. but it's just part of -- it's part of icahn's fund. >> so riddle me this, because i don't know the answer to this. maybe you do. carl seemed to -- everything he has touched lately has turned to gold. >> amazing. it's been amazing. >> icahn enterprises, iep, the stock has been grim death now for, i don't know, four or five months. what is the disconnect between his performance and the stock performance? there. >> has been a huge disconnect from not just the last couple of months, for years. the stock was trading at 42. he bought cvr energy with it, made a billion dollars on cvr energy and it was trading at $41.50. and that was right into iep. there is not a big float there. so that's one of the things. but no, you're right.

it's just not a highly floated stock. >> maybe it should be -- what's the word? >> i don't know what you're thinking, guy. so i can't give you the word. >> come in and do his own stock. he should be an activist. >> whoa. interesting. >> what level of the man's genius is revealed in just filing on high short interest stocks which have been the ones that have ripped. and to guy's point, something that has no short interest like iep that sucks. >> what do you mean? >> it's actually his idea there is that he likes the company. i think the idea is w some of the things like ahman is he doesn't like actman. i don't know if he likes the company. >> you're referring to herbalife, he likes the company. he doesn't like ackman. we all know that. not liking ackman is a little gravy for him. he wouldn't do it if he doesn't believe in the country. >> the short interest is surreal. short squeezes have been epic, and he has really played that well. >> getting to iep, he owns 90% of the company there is not a

huge float. it's not heavily traded. and you have to be a partner, you know, very minority partner of carl icahn if you want to invest in that. >> ken, we're going to leave there it. thanks for stopping by. ken squier of the 13 deactivist fund. nasdaq taking a hit today, down almost 13%, after announcing the acquisition of espeed. but some options traders making big bets the stock will recover in just the next couple of weeks. mike, what did you see? >> we saw some buys the april 31 calls. they were paying 40 cents for that. those are bets the stock will be up maybe by 11% by april expiration there was a coup i think for brrr cg partners. i'm trying to figure out what nasdaq was thinking. i wouldn't buy the stock. the call is the only way to play it. >> if you want to buy nasdaq, calls is the best way to do it. cme group pays a 3% dividend. you still get the exposure to the exchanges. coming up next on "fast," we are down to determining our last four.

last four stocks in "fast money" madness. google and disney are already there. we decide tonight who wins the financial region. a battle of credit cards versus banking. that's next. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ it's so close to the options floor... [ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪ from td ameritrade. it's not what you think. it's a phoenix with 4 wheels. it's a hawk with night vision goggles. it's marching to the beat of a different drum. and where beauty

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welcome back to "fast money." i'm josh lipton. check out zynga, which is enjoying a nice move in the after hours. we knew this was coming, but here is the official word. zynga's real money gaming launches in the uk tomorrow. players aged 18 and over in the uk will be able to play zynga plus poker and zynga plus casino, either as a download or on the web. zynga already up some 35% this year. melissa, back to you. >> i can't wait. josh lipton, thank you. time now, zynga plus casino, it's awesome. time now for "fast money" madness. the tournament had a day off yesterday. but we are back at it today. we started out, of course, with 64 stocks from four regions, and have whittled the competition down to six names. tonight we feature the regional finals from the financial sector. number one seed bank of america taking on number three seed visa. the winner will advance to the

last four stocks to duke it out. so let's turn to the trader for this very important matchup, guy. your pick. >> look, i said it. i'll say it again. i think visa can and should win this whole shebang. it's not because i think the consumer here is alive and well. far from it. but, again, people are spending money in a different way. they use plastic instead of paper that trend will continue. visa processes these transactions. they win to that letter. >> keith? >> i go with bank of america. i like the number one seed. i think housing has been one of the biggest calls of the year. if you stay with that, you get the pullback. and here it is, bank of america, take it to new highs. >> i'm going to go with guy and visa. even though in the fast i picked bank of america, i think given this matchup, i would much rather be in a name that is going through a -- a change. >> year, one of those. >> one of those type of changes. >> tim? >> we're going to need the fans at home to weigh in on this one. it's a no-brainer. first of all, if you look at valuation, bank of america has plenty of room to go. the money center banks, period,

if you think the consumer spending, guy, this is how you're going to see it carry through. if you look at 0.87 versus where they were trading precrisis, i'm not saying this is the same balance sheet. it's been diluted and it's got a lot more other pieces of toxin on it. but at the same time, this is a company that is cheap to its peers. you're getting the growth. bank of america, you go with the dynasty, just because the stock is up it doesn't mean you stay away. go with the winner. >> so it would appear that we have a tie here on the desk. two for visa, two for bank of america. but remember, you out there, the twitter votes count as a trader. we tallied your votes. and guess who you picked? bank of america. >> that's what i'm talking about! it's bank of america. >> i hope they got that on film. that was embarrassing. >> all right. so bank of america advances. to see a full bracket of all the stocks in play in our faa "fast" competition, log on the fastmoney.cnbc.com. and you can get in by tweeting

and tell us which stocks yourself picking by using fast money madness. there will never be any ties. why is that? you out there are the fifth trader. >> that was exciting. thank you very much for that. >> it was. tomorrow we'll determine the final member of the last four. so you will not want to miss that. still to come, cnbc's jane wells gives us what is making headlines out west. hey, jane. >> hey, melissa. amazon is kindling up something new. and you won't believe the name of the guy they hired. and while i may be wrong about lindsay lohan for now, the biebs has still got it. baby, baby, baby, oh, when we come back. ♪ [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain... [ thunder rumbles ] ♪

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from mobile devices to medical marijuana, we've got you covered, as always, in the west coast wrap. jane, take it away. >> hey, melissa, could amazon be planning to build another device? the financial times reports the financial giant has hired a 20-year veteran of microsoft.

the new hire worked on windows phone before leaving a note. it is a guy who says on his linked in that he is now a director of something secret at amazon. and his name? charlie kindle. what? how can that be. mike khouw, is this positive for amazon, hiring the guy who developed the phone that no one wants to buy? >> i will say this about amazon. not everything they have done is a success. i think they obviously are going to grow many times over the coming years. but it's just not a stock i could possibly touch based on valuation issues alone. >> the ftc has caught up with the kids deciding it's okay to release news for social media. the case comes after netflix reed hastings bragged that monthly viewing had surpassed a billion hours. netflix tells our julia boorstin we appreciate the s.e.c.'s careful consideration and resolution of this matter. tough news for analysts paid to

reap ten q's. >> just get the twitter feed. >> reed hastings getting it done that misstep was a bit of a misstep, but he is on fire now. and jc today, didn't he say microsoft should gobble up net netflix? if you sell netflix short here, i think you do it at your own peril, jane. >> finally, he may be spitting on his neighbor, walking around with his pants on the ground, driving too fast and now owning a monkey. and no, i'm not talking about guy. but justin bieber hasn't completely lost it yet. he tweeted an invitation to fans to call him and gave out a phone number. it was the number for tmz. so those hoping to talk to the teen heartthrob instead got harvey levin, baby, baby, baby, ouch. >> that's pretty crafty of the biebs. i got to take my hat off -- no, i'm not taking my hat off. >> play him in your car. i was driving with you the other day. >> we were rocking it out. you had your pants down. >> whoa, whoa, whoa. >> wow, that is a visual that

will haunt me all night. >> you run around -- >> horrible. all right, jane, thank you. >> let's leave that one alone. >> jane wells with the west coast. who doesn't love jane? >> if you don't love jane, you're not living -- you're not from this planet. you're an extraterrestrial. >> an alien. >> i'm so far away. i'm just all you know is this. ask my husband. it's a lot more complicated. >> we got to get you in the studio, jane. >> jane, we'll see you tomorrow. we got your first move tomorrow when we come right back. stay tuned. at tyco integrated security, we consider ourselves business optimizers.

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♪ we're for those kinds of people. because we're that kind of airline. and we never stop looking for a better way. it's how we've grown into america's largest domestic airline. we are southwest. welcome aboard. time for the final trade. mike khouw? >> i would go with general motors over tesla any day. >> tim? >> vimpelcom. this stock is going higher. >> brian kelly? >> don't be fooled by europe. it's still a short epv. >> keith? >> i'm still bullish on the market. i say you just buy the market. russell 2000 iwm. >> how did you do in your -- in your college pool, your final four? >> i didn't do a bracket. no. you know that i did -- i don't know why you ask, because you know. >> such a geek.

>> lockheed martin, you saw the graphic there. what is