Anonymous 2

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    • Performance for Harvard, Yale Endowments in 2008 [view article]
      I believe that many of the current bloggers would like to know the extent to which Harvard, Yale, Stanford, CALPERS, and University of North Calolina - as example - have - over the past 8 years since the turn of the century - allocated a percentage of their total assets to funds managed by sub advisors who use Alternative Investment Starategies as independent hedge fund managers.
      Perhaps a spreadsheet showing the percent allocated to such managers by each institution during each of the past 8 years and the net after fee returns these managers returned - relative to the appropriate benchmark - to these endowmnt funds and to what extent they provided "value added' to the overall returns of the total endowment funds of each of these institutions required by law to provide "prudent man guidelines" to the management of such funds.
      iI is my understandimg that most endowments of large universities such as the above and other non profit foundations and institutions have - over the past ten years added significant funds toward these AIS and that such allocations have in fact added substantial value to the overall returns of many of these institutions. Perhaps HFR might be able to shed some statistics.       Sep 22 03:59 AM
    • JPMorgan Boosts Bear Bid to $10 - NY Times [view article]
      One group of shareholders who have not been recognized are the RETIRED employees - many of whom have been 2, 3 and 4 decades long loyal hard working employees - who have over their careers earned and credited with compensation which has been deferred as part of their hard earned retirement funds and income for a period of up to ten years. With only a few exceptions, most all of these retired employees are living on what was a result of many years of loyalty and hard work and they have no responsibility for any of the current problems. Most of these employees are the worker bees of the company and did not retire with big bonuses and 401k plans. When the chose to retire, they included the expected receipt of deferred compensation as an important component of their retirement income.
      In many - or most? - instances, a large portion of the deferred compensation is in the form of shares of Bear Stearns - and a relatively small portion from "cash". For a retired employee to not receive his EARNED compensation over a deferred period of time is a hardship which is not deserving of persons who have already EARNED the compensation and should be able to receive the full value (plus money market interest compounding from the date of retirement) of these funds during retirement.
      I hope others who are retired employees of Bear Stearns might add their comments.       Mar 24 12:49 PM
    • Subprime Market Bottom Fishing Time? [view article]
      the diff is that the new CEO is a decades long standing BS employee - so he DOES have "something whatsoever" to do with the "old mess" - even if only as a senior management person well aware of what his fellow senior peers were or were not doing to avoid the results of "managing" a highly leveraged portfolio of illiquid securities during a time which many were suggesting (and GS acted upon) was a bubble period in the housing markets Jan 10 12:01 PM
    • Bear Stearns: Now Trading Below Book Value [view article]
      How many times in the past has BSC or any of the other big 5 NYSE traded brokerage firms traded below book? and how many institutions and or insiders or other individuals with publically disclosable stock positions added to or liquidated shares during the past twelve months since BSC hit it all time high? Jan 06 03:08 PM
    • Big Brokers' Level 3 Assets: Not As Scary As People Say [view article]
      Obviously absent from the comments were the "other two" of the big 5 stock brokerage firms.
      It would be interesting to learn of views by analysts about what the current market is "expecting" or "discounting"... in terms of what will (levels) be disclosed by BSC and MS this coming week... I.E., what will be the Level 3 disclosed by each and to what extent will it have been increased - or decreased - since the most recent disclosed level? And in each case - except for GS, and perhaps LEH - what is the perceived or actual status of the most senior levels of management responsible
      to the company's employees for providing a well diversified portfolio of products and
      to the company's retail and institutional investor clients an appropriate level of prudent risk management and
      to the shareholders a "proper financial structure in place" (mentioned above) along with an appropriate long term diversified and strategic growth plan to remain viable and profitable in volatile market environments.
      In the case of some of these brokerage and banking firms, the CEOs and COBs responsible for lack of such strategic risk management no longer hold these positions.
      In these cases, the markets now seem to be discounting potential for future improvement and recovery rather than discounting future uncertainty.       Dec 16 04:24 PM
    • Where I'm Changing My Investment Strategy, and Why [view article]
      When do you plan an update on the "Skeletons" comments of 2 1/2 months ago...
      since than a bunch of heads have rolled - 2 out of the 3 mentioned in the WSJ -
      Most LOYAL EMPLOYEES would probably deem it appropriate that heads should roll when senior corporate officers and especially "the buck stops here" CEO's have a long standing record of not staying on top of prudent diversified corporate growth prospects in order to keep the company products and services diversified and competitive and thus undermine the personal career growth of loyal the company's employees.
      That said, I would think that most INVESTORS would agree that the corporate COB head should roll (with no need to include non earned bonuses or non earned additional performance based stock options since the resulting huge stock losses absorbed by loyal employees and shareholders) when their long standing inattention to provide prudent corporate diversification strategies which should have taken into consideration macro risk management concerns which in turn creates mind boggling shareholder losses to the shares of the public company.
      Since many of the publicaly held financial banks and financial service companyies make decisions as to performance based end of year bonuses during the last few weeks of their fiscal year (in almost all cases November), is there any reason to think that the remaining skeletons in the closet just might happen to come out of the Halloween closet AFTER the THANKSGIVING weekend and AFTER the close of business for these company's fiscal year next Friday?
      By then, the many responsible for these above mentioned CEO/COB responsibilities, will have been granted such performance based expressions of gratitude by the shareholders who have only to thank their (sometimes not so independent) COB.
      To answer my own question, I believe the turnaround in shareholder values will not take place until after the last of the heads (of the remaining skeletons are definitively revealed which will enable the financial effects of their strategic errors to be publicaly discounted) roll on toward retirement

       Nov 20 02:35 PM
    • Fannie Mae's Housing Forecast Seems Too Optimistic [view article]
      Maybe the persons responsible for the filing of the FNM report were at the same golf club or at the same bridge tournament at which a few othres slipped away for a few minute smoke break - but without inhaling... Nov 11 04:20 PM
    • The Writedown Leaderboard: Merrill Now in First [view article]
      I look forward to the authors doing an update 30 days after each of the next 3 quarters showing these updated revised data and the next three quarter's additional writeoffs and cumulative write offs - in a total of eventually 5 columns - to help understand the full extent these 11 "leaders" have accurately reflected (reported) their exposure. Additional column(s) could be added showing the quarterly "market values" to help recognize the relationship bewteen the size of the write offs relative to the size of the compoany. Oct 25 12:36 PM
    • Lehman's Earnings Bolster My Confidence In Goldman's [view article]
      but no comments on ppotential that BSC and MS and MER might also show upside surprise - or are their issues totally non correlated with those of LEH?
      What are the comparable value ratios such as "Book" vs. "Enterprise" values and to what target prices do there valuation levels suggest for the next 6 to 12 months based on (A) non take over valuations? and (B) potential take over valuations?       Sep 19 10:45 AM
    • Q3 Earnings Season: Taking the Long View [view article]
      Markham: as a reporter, it might be of interest to view the newly updated projected revenues, eps, bookvale, enterprise value and 6 and 12 month price targets and associated ratios of each of the big 5 - from their 4 friendly competitoirs (since they do not offer opinions regarding their own companies). This could be provided in a spreadsheet format and updarted for your readers on a monthly basis going forward... Sep 18 11:32 AM
    • Analyst Targets for Many Financial Stocks Now Well Above Trading Price [view article]
      Perhaps a few more columns of comparative data such as Price to book, Price to "enterprise value", etc would help differentiate various current "valuations"

      RF       Aug 06 11:00 AM
    • S&P 500 Sitting Right Above Its 200-Day Moving Average [view article]
      The following are some considerations when using moving average lines to help in the timing of buying or selling equities: The current price going above or below one of the two (50 or 200 day) levels are important (bull/bear) indicators but the direction (up or down) of each of the two lines (is todays level above or below yesterday's level) helps one place appropriately more or less importance on the fact that the current price is in fact above or below... and of course the crossing of the shorter term line from below to above the longer term line - or vise versa - helps place even more (or less) importance on the total of 5 indicators which are at any one time either bullish or bearish:
      bull or bear direction of short term line
      bull or bear direction of long term line
      cur price above or below the short term line
      cur price above or below the longer term line
      short term level above or below the longer term line
      The timing of buying/selling a stock using the above bull bear indicators can be even more carefully tuned if simultaneously using indicators for a sector or industry index which enable one to selecting a positive stock in positive trending industries - and vice versa.       Aug 01 06:25 PM
    • Bear Stearns' Slide Appears to Be Slowing [view article]
      Finally some good (potential at least) news
      I like the way it gap opened today and approached the down sloping 50 day moving average line
      and then filled its gap.
      Now for some follow through
      We obviously need to see some higher recovery lows and higher recovery highs going forward.
      I look forward to seeing the first one of the 5 (currently bearish) movng Average indicators turn positive.       Jul 19 12:51 PM
    • Tax Advantages of Inverse ETFs Not So Clear [view article]
      Why not just buy a put option on the IYR etf which has a 12 month or longer expiration?
      Such as the Jan 2009 $80 Strike price??

      Signed TF       Jun 19 05:35 PM
    • Tax Advantages of Inverse ETFs Not So Clear [view article]
      Why not just buy a put option on the IYR etf which has a 12 month or longer expiration?
      Such as the Jan 2009 $80 Strike price??

      Signed TF       Jun 19 05:35 PM
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