George Spritzer

CEF Weekly Review: Ping Pong, Anyone?

Great review, Joe!

I think there are a few things that would make it hard for an activist to try to close ADX:
- ADX has about $1 billion in assets. The activist would need very deep pockets
- ADX has a long history and some shareholders have a very low cost basis and do not want any taxable events to occur.
- ADX is well managed and has a low expense ratio and low turnover ratio. They do not use gimmicks like managed distributions and they only pay out what the fund actually earns.

I currently own ADX in an IRA account, so I'd get a one time benefit if it were liquidated, but I don't mind if it stays the way it is. That way it keeps on providing opportunities to swing trade it based on mean reversion of the discount.

CEF Weekly Review: Death of a Friend

Joe-
I also miss etfconnect, but let's be fair. CEFconnect does offer some improvements- for example daily price histories of CEF discount/premiums. etfconnect only had monthly series.

Natural Gas ETF Anomaly - Is It Time to Exploit?

There are two problems with UNG. There are three components of return when you invest in commodity futures.
1) Collateral yield: Near zero T-Bill rates do not even cover management fees.
2) Roll yield: Currently about negative 50% a year due to large contango.
3) Projected change in spot price: I expect this to be positive, but maybe not enough to make up for the negative roll yield and low T-Bill rates.

5 Reasons Nokia Is a Good Value

Sher-
You're right. A settlement was reached in late July, but specific financial details were not disclosed. So there is still uncertainty caused in the stock price until we can see the impact of the settlement terms.

Interdependence and This Crisis

Here's an idea that might make sense now- Instead of trying to just regulate Wall street compensation, how about just adding a new income tax bracket of 60% that applies to all income over $1 million.

Some benefits:
1) Reduces compensation of the Wall street bigwigs without affecting lower level employees.
2) It would sharply lower municipal bond interest rates. State and local governments are in dire straits and need all the help they can.
3) It would help real estate prices, since for people in the highest tax bracket the after-tax mortgage rate would be substantially reduced.
4) Help even out the L-curve and stabilize the system. The top 0.1% has been rapidly taking over an enormous share of national income and wealth to the point where the system has become unstable.

RMK Advantage Closed End Fund is Worth a Look

Ben-

1) Much of their portfolio is inactively traded. So they use the bid price for valuation purposes. If you were a vulture investor and tried to buy the bonds in their portfolio directly, you would have to pay the asked price.

2) Look at the NAV values (XRMAX) the first three days after they took over the fund on July 29-
July 29- 2.36
July 30- 2.31
July 31- 2.14
Aug 1 - 2.06

3) They have also been selling off illiquid stuff and buying more liquid stuff whiich has also caused a further haircut in NAV.

WaMu on the Brink

What would a Wamu failure mean to senior debt holders?

With BSC, FRE and FNM the senior debt holders benefited.

George

Time To Bail Out WaMu?

Has anyone looked at the Wamu senior debt maturing in January 2010?
It yields around 70%.

George
quantinvestor.blogspot...

Six Reasons to Like the Morgan Stanley Emerging Market Domestic Debt Fund

EDD is cheap here and good speculative investment, but it is certainly not an appropriate investment for highly risk averse investors (e.g. widows and orphans). Nowadays almost no fixed income investment is completely safe except maybe FDIC guaranteed CD's (below 4100K) or US Savings bonds.

$300/Barrel Oil Is Coming - Barron's Interview

I think Maxwell is underestimating the probability of an unexpected technological advance. Once oil passes $150, there will be huge amounts spent on alternative energy research. Someone might come up with a revolutionary game-changing technology sooner than he thinks.

Five Reasons to Buy Nuveen Floating Rate Income Fund

I agree with najdorf. Many closed end funds become good buys precisely because they drop in price and the disount to NAV widens dramatically.

najdorf: Are you related to the Argentine chess grandmaster?

16 Stocks That Are Paying My College Tuition

Glenn-
Keep up the good work! Your stock recommendations are brief and to the point.

I also posted on XIN on my blog on May 19-

quantinvestor.blogspot...

George Spritzer

Fundamental Analysis for Emerging Markets

MXF has annual tender offers where you exchange your MXF shares at NAV in return for Mexican securities. This is a good deal, since MXF sells at a double digit discount to NAV.

But in order to do this efficiently, you need a large position (at least 100K) and use a broker who can sell shares on the Mexican stock exchange.

Trading Closed-End Funds - An Update

Ben-

What is your opinion of Central Securities (ticker CET)? It has a low expense ratio and high discount to NAV. Their top holding is Plymouth Rock which is private. It is a solid company, but the lack of liquidity might add to the CET discount.

American CareSource Is a Buy With Blowout Revenues

XSI reported excellent revenues and raised guidance. The stock is trading around 6.45 now.
biz.yahoo.com/iw/08081...