Mark Hines

The Real Cost of Economic Stimulus

prudentinvestor- speaking of redistributing wealth from the productive and the prudent, to the unproductive and wasteful... check out Todd Chalem's other article: The Stimulative Sitmulating Stimulus...

www.investorwalk.com/i...

the Fama link in this article exactly describes the redistribution of wealth you are talking about... it's worth the read.

Why Capping Pay Is Likely to Work

Hi Felix,
Thanks for the excellent timely article, and I like your take on the subject. I think this cap is just one more move closer to making all of these big banks entirely owned by the government. I cannot see any way for companies to attract top talent on only $500k per year. These C-level execs are usually extremely smart, have exceptional experience, and an incredible work-ethic. I just don't see top talent working for $500k per year when they can make so much more elsewhere. What we'll be left with is huge banks run by government... there is basically no way they'll be profitable, and it will end up increasing the national debt.

Opportunities in a High Correlation World

Geoff- Good stuff!

Market Outlook: It's Still All About Housing

Frank! It's great to hear from you. I’m not in the habit of regularly checking the comments on SeekingAlpha, so I’m glad I caught this one as I enjoy your analysis. Feel free to log onto our Vestopia website, and let me know what’s new. We would absolutely love to have more of your thoughts and comments showing up on our site (Vestopia.com).

Smallcaps With Attractive Price-to-Book Ratios

Hi Jakester. Here are two brief ideas…

1) This is a long term strategy, so the results after 9 months have little relevance (feel free to read some of the research reports linked above if you want more information).

2) The overall stock market is down significantly since the list was posted in October 2007. However, the majority of the stocks on the list have actually outperformed the S&P500 and the Russell 2000 Value, so by those benchmarks performance has been good.

Thank for your comments.

The Relationship between Oil, Drillers and Refiners

Hi H.W. I agree with you. This is just a short sample period of data for only a few stocks. It was only meant to give folks (and myself) a rough confirmation of a general relationship that many people assume to be true. Obviously there are a lot more factors at play, and a lot more robust models can be built for those inclined to do so. Thanks for you comments.

The Relationship between Oil, Drillers and Refiners

MarkR- I have access to some premium price data services that I cannot share, but you can get the same data for free all over the Internet. Try Yahoo!Finance for historical stock prices and try this link for historical oil prices:

tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav...

Also, here is a link to my original article, which includes more detail on the regression results:
vestopia.com/Blogs/Mar...

Does the Nikkei Predict Moves in the S&P500?

Hi Jan,
That's not a bad idea. I'll try to run some regressions using more global indexes to see if I can increase the explanatory power of the model. Thx, Mark.

Blogonomics: The Seeking Alpha Model

Hi David,
I love SeekingAlpha, but I have to admit... It annoys me to no end when you guys change the title of my blogs. I understand you guys have good intentions, but most of the time you end up changing the meaning altogether. Also, I occasionally notice you try to improve my grammar, but in most cases my grammar is correct to begin with and your editors make it worse. Anyway, I love your site.

Stocks Are the Place to Be - Google and Apple in Particular

Wow, I have to admit, I’m a little surprised that this blog entry showed up on Seeking Alpha. This was a very quick blurb I wrote for my private blog at Vestopia, and I didn’t expect the Seeking Alpha people would pick it up. Anyway, a couple points for clarification. 1) My Seeking Alpha Bio is incorrect. While at Northern Trust my team managed approximately $1.5 billion (not $1.5 million as the bio suggests). 2) You can view all of my holdings and trading activity (in real time), at Vestopia.com. 3) There is currently no charge to use Vestopia- it’s totally free (i.e. I’m not trying to sell anything). 4) I love the unabashed comments by the SeekingAlpha readers. This site is truly a great place to exchange ideas. Thanks all for your comments.

Future at Abercrombie and American Eagle Not So Grim

Great point User 167169. The folks at Pali Research used the same technique as you, but they surveyed teens all across America by giving them $100 mall gift cards that were good at stores like Abercrombie, American Eagle, Wet Seal, Hollister, Pac Sun, Aeropastale, etc. American Eagle was the hands down winner! Check out their research/documentary if you have access:

paliresearch.com/blog/.../


AEO)+at+Buy/3392871.html'>www.streetinsider.com/...

Four Ways To Gain Hedge Fund Exposure On The Public Market

Very true. These hedge fund managers cashed out when market valuations were high, and now they look like geniuses because the market valuations are so low.

Future at Abercrombie and American Eagle Not So Grim

SDA- Thanks for your comments. That is good perspective.

Walgreen: Attractive Valuation and Growth Story

Chungst,
Thanks for the friendly debate. Would love to have more of your comments showing up on our Vestopia website at:
vestopia.com/Blogs/Mar...

Walgreen: Attractive Valuation and Growth Story

Hi Chungst,

Thanks again for your comments, and your point on ink cartridges is well-taken. However, I still think the convenience argument stands. When time is critical people aren’t going to wait 3 to 5 business days for an Internet delivery when they can pick it up at Walgreen’s in 5 minutes. It's like buying Coke out of a vending machine; why do people pay $1.25 when they can get it from the grocery store for 25 cents. Convenience.