Category Archives: investing

Subprime Prescience at MetLife

Posted on December 5, 2007 by Felix

Lavonne Kuykendall quotes Steven Kandarian, MetLife’s CIO: Mr. Kandarian said MetLife identified the risk from subprime loans early and stopped buying subprime mortgage-backed securities rated single-A and below in late 2004. Note that MetLife’s fund managers aren’t the kind of … Continue reading →

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When Fund Managers Change Their Minds

Posted on December 3, 2007 by Felix

The Swiss fund manager and blogger who calls himself "Baruch" posted a comment on Saturday evening about Research in Motion, currently trading at about $105 a share: I use a standardized DCF approach and have quite a detailed model of … Continue reading →

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How Lucrative Are Repos?

Posted on November 30, 2007 by Felix

As 130/30 funds and other long-short plays become increasingly popular, the quantity of short-selling going on in the stock market is only likely to increase. That, in turn, means that the amount of stock lending (repos) going on is going … Continue reading →

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Sovereign Wealth Fund Datapoints of the Day

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Felix

More from the December Euromoney, this time from Sudip Roy’s cover story on sovereign wealth funds. Two datapoints jumped out at me: "For all of the headlines being generated by the investments in the US and Europe, it’s a fraction … Continue reading →

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Hedge Funds and the “Buy Stuff That Has Gone Up a Lot And Cross Fingers” Strategy

Posted on November 23, 2007 by Felix

Did you really think I was going to leave you for the weekend to plough through a thousand words on LSS-backed ABCP backstops? I’m nicer than that. Instead, enjoy my man Baruch: If scurrilous gossip is true, and it normally … Continue reading →

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How Can Index Funds Beat the Market?

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Felix

Ben Stein loves Dimensional Fund Advisors. They "run the most amazingly successful, low-cost, unmanaged but somehow deep-value index funds I have ever found," he says, adding that "their returns are amazing, and they charge almost nothing." It’s a bit weird: … Continue reading →

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The World’s Wost ETF

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Felix

Greg Newton has found an ETF with the ticker symbol DCR, the MacroShares Oil Down fund. Its net asset value is $7.91 per share, but its price is $14.25 per share: a premium of more than 80%. Yes, I know … Continue reading →

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Skill vs Luck in Investing

Posted on November 5, 2007 by Felix

Greg Mankiw seems to think quite highly of a speech that investor Mark Sellers gave to MBA students at Harvard. But although I’m a writer and Sellers says very nice things about writers,most of what he has to say rings … Continue reading →

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The Search for Consistently Uncorrelated Assets

Posted on September 27, 2007 by Felix

Are you worried about your stock-market exposure? Buy into something even more bubblicious: natural resources! That seems to be the message of a recent article in the Journal of Financial Planning by William Coaker. Coaker went searching for one of … Continue reading →

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Pimco’s Endowments

Posted on September 14, 2007 by Felix

Jenny Anderson moves the El-Erian story forwards today, talking to a number of former endowment chiefs about how tough the job is, and finding one startling statistic: Nationally, more than 40 percent of the top investment executives within universities and … Continue reading →

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Getting Your Priorities Straight

Posted on September 13, 2007 by Felix

Investing advice for the ages, from Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov, when asked what he would do with $50 million to invest: "If we are talking about up to $50 million, it’s better to spend it on yourself."

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El-Erian to Head Pimco Push into Alternative Investments

Posted on September 12, 2007 by Felix

>A bit more information on the
El-Erian front this morning, with Pimco’s Bill Gross talking
to the Wall Street Journal. The big news is that Pimco seems to be interested
in getting into the alternative investments:
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The Journal Tells Us Quants Have Suffered

Posted on September 7, 2007 by Felix

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: Readers have probably figured out that I think the reporting in the Wall Street Journal is overrated. We have a prime example on page one today, “How Market Turmoil Waylaid the ‘Quants’.” My understanding … Continue reading →

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Commercial Real Estate Prices May Drop 15% in Next Year

Posted on September 5, 2007 by Felix

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: Experts warn that the boom in commercial real estate prices, fueled by cheap credit, is going sharply into reverse. Fitch had noted as early as April, and again in July that commercial real estate … Continue reading →

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The Barriers to Bottom Fishing

Posted on September 4, 2007 by Felix

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: John Dizard, in today’s Financial Times, tells us why, despite the fact that a lot of fixed income paper is on offer at very cheap prices, no one seems to be stepping to the … Continue reading →

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Corporate Deleveraging May Be Overstated

Posted on August 28, 2007 by Felix

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism reports: BreakingViews (free subscription required) reports that the degree of deleveraging of corporate balance sheets may be exaggerated. Yet another reason to look at stocks with a wary eye. Readers may know that the level … Continue reading →

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Harvard Gets It Right Again

Posted on August 21, 2007 by Felix

HMC had a truly phenomenal fiscal 2007.
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Bear Got a Sugar Daddy?

Posted on August 16, 2007 by Felix

Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism submits: Bloomberg tells us that Bear Stearns’ shares rose 13% on an analyst’s comments that the firm “may” have secured an equity investment. Now events may prove me wrong, but Bear has been out looking … Continue reading →

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Unpacking Mohamed El-Erian’s Investment Strategy

Posted on May 30, 2007 by Felix

The three pillars of Mohamed El-Erian’s investment strategy.
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