Ron Finberg

Rick Santelli: The Best Five Minutes in CNBC History

Anyone else wondering who Rick voted for? Was his rant based on anger that his guy lost or has baloon been popped by the "CHANGE" of the new administration.

ETF Investors Mistakenly Stock Up on USO: Buy USL Instead

Anyone know if the "contango" phenomenum is a current anomoly caused by excess volotilty, or is this the norm. Also, was the inverse occuring when crude was heading higher?

In Search of a New Hedge Fund Business Model

I there is demand. Hedge funds will charge whatever they can get.

This is why some quant funds that marketed steady returns and lower betas did,received 40+% fees.

With demand limited in the near future, fees will naturally come down without any new changes in structure, because many funds will be chasing the same investors and will offer better deals to get them.

Manitowoc: Purely Speculative... For Now

On Feb 04 09:34 AM Seeking reality wrote:

> I guess it is much
> more fun, however, to just make superficial comments that make you
> sound like an "expert".

I am a new out here to contributing articles so I guess the comment is fair.

My Cash Flow Math

300 Million (paid down in 2008 with available cash)
70 Million (Enodis Contribution, est from 2006 & 2007 reports)
200 Million (anticpated cash flow from MTW pre merger, with 20% reduction in sales)
250 (asset sales) **Obviously debatable, but premiums for asset sales are rare now
-125 (debt payments- 6.25% on 2Billion)
695 Total,

Although, I think the numbers are high and the Crane division slowdown will be greater than MTW anticipates.

My biggest gripe is that mangement seems to be over-enthusiastic about 2009, compared to other firms that have reported and have similar construction and overseas sales.

Growth Continues to Pummel Value

Interesting that value still underperforming now that financials have become such a smaller market cap % of the index, and healthcare, pharma and consumer staples becoming more heavily weighted.

I guess in 2009, value means lots of cash and less credit risk, and PE, P/S, and book value has been thown out of the window.

Two Reasons CF Looks Headed for Big Profits

"And one of the only ways currently available to increase production is to load up on powerful nitrogen fertilizers. And since supply is finite, long-term prices have only one way to go."

If you look at TRA's earning reports, their record revenues and profits are due only to higher sales prices but actual volume growth for their most expensive products has been negligable. This is in contrast to MON, POT and others that have experienced both higher sales volumes due to increases in planted acreage and higher pricing.

In all likelihood, nitrogen prices collapse in 2009.

That saying, AG stocks still look pretty cheap but their growth engine was proven to be completely speculative.

State Street Proves There's No Such Thing as a Safe Financial Stock

From wikipedia.org
"Systemic risk is the risk of collapse of an entire system or entire market and not to any one individual entity or component of that system.[1]"

I don't think the powers at be had this type of collapse in mind when they wrote that definition.

Than again, STT did drop around 40 points in Sept when there was a concern that their money markets were below $1.00 par.

What's in Store for 2009? Gold, Metals and Other Markets

Great charts,
Disagree about the $ though.
The US isn't the only country giving out free money and taking over their institutions.
Also, with limited leverage available, the carry-trade is effectively dead, thereby limiting speculative selling of the $.

Trillions and Trillions: The National Debt and Where It Is Going

The problem with all these numbers is that thet rarely take into account any recaptured profits the Govt may recieve on their investments. The US has taken a path to privatize the nation once again, and in 10-15 years, maybe 20, a truer sense of how things play out will occur.

I just hope they have better MBA's working for them than most hedge funds do.