Matthew Trahan

Excess Retail Footage: How Americans Use Land Stupidly

It's only so suited as long as it's easy to obtain the funds to do so... the trend of constant renovation to meet changing needs is only a product of cheap credit.


On Jun 16 08:57 AM LarryJoeBird wrote:

> Not sure I agree with this article. I own a site with a big box that
> has transformed itself from a supermarket, to a gym to a pet store/doggy
> daycare. The reason the innercity spaces seemingly adapt themselves
> so well is lack of choice. How many restaurants have you been two
> with separate entrances, or second floors where they have to bring
> the food from the ovens in the basement. The reason people are building
> these large boxes is because the availability of capital (decoupling
> of real estate from operating businesses) to build exactly what they
> need - it is up to the second person using the space to make it adapt
> to their and their customer's needs. This environment is perfectly
> suited to this type of adaptation.

Biting the Hedge Fund Hand That Could Save the Economy

Wake up people, investing is speculating.

If one examines a company and thinks it is a good investment, it is because he or she believe that the -price will rise- therefor they believe it is -undervalued-. That is pure speculation.

If one thinks a company is undervalued and wishes to speculatate on the price rising, he or she buys shares.

If one believe that a company is -over-valued and wishes to speculate, the only way they can do so is if they already owned the company and sell their shares. However that is likely a small portion of market participants. Thus we have short selling.

Without an equal number of people with the -ability- to move the price higher and lower, an unatural upward pressure manifests itself in artificially inflated prices, leading to larger crashes when the market finally can properly price the company.


On May 13 09:21 AM Trane250 wrote:

> Correction: "Short sellers" are not "investors." They are speculators
> or to use the more euphemistic term "players." Many of these hedge
> funds bought GM bonds on the secondary market hoping to make a killing
> if GM's fortunes improve. Obama did an end run around them. Serves
> them right.

Steer Clear of Banks Who Need New Capital

No worries... when dealing with a situation like this it's easy to let personal philosophy take over one's opinion. There is a difference between how you believe an economy should be run and how to make money in the economy in which you live regardless of the circumstances. It seems you have been managing that quite aptly and i commend you for it.


On May 08 01:10 PM Smackdown wrote:

> Sorry....
>
> I was getting frustrated that there are a plethora of posts on here
> that only harp negative that either suggest or imply things are going
> to crater and that one should be shorting. This is a crapshoot.<br/>
>
> On the other hand, I have repeatedly offered specific advice to buy
> MLPs and preferreds. These have proven to be homeruns.
>
> I'd take rational and well thought out investment advice with a real
> valuation metrics any day over the chicken little nonsense. Yield
> securities always revert to the mean. I identified and I was 100%
> correct. So if I have an agenda, it is to offer real suggestions
> to invest in this climate.

Steer Clear of Banks Who Need New Capital

While not logically replying to anything i said makes it easy to attack me... it makes you look like a pusher with an agenda. Im not a shorter, i have no positions right now. I don't know what metrics you use to determine the value of a business or an economy but i think you should perhaps widen your horizons. I'm not doom and gloom, anybody can make money in any market and an economy with 300 million people doesn't just stop demanding and supplying goods... but plenty of wrenches can be thrown in the gears along the way... mostly by government.

Steer Clear of Banks Who Need New Capital

The banks parlor tricks were enabled by an interest-rate manipulating federal reserve and could have been easily punished (if not prevented, via advance knowledge of the possiblity) by simply letting the companies fail... we have plently of laws that cover fraud and everyone who lost money in stock/bonds/whatever investment should be well aware that at any time they can lose that money. The framework was in place to adequately deal with the problem via bankruptcy... government ownership/crony regulation/federal reserve system is exactly what has and is excacerbating the problem and will plague our economy for years.


On May 07 03:06 PM jwheeler79 wrote:

> And what exactly is wrong with Government ownership? What? The banks
> won't be able to perform their parlor tricks and dump the economy
> with them? Sounds like a plan to me.
>
> At any rate, I am glad we have irrational bears like you posting
> this propaganda, while I make a mint on the financials. America will
> succeed dumb ass.

Time for Dollar Bears to Go Long Commodity Currencies

Firstly, the definition of a fiat currency should be -bubble-.

Also, if you think that a simple glance at the 5 year trend is any kind of treatise into the shit-storm that is the dollar (and most other currencies, they're all tied together), you're sorely mistaken.

I'm not aware of any commodity whose supply you can increase exponentially without experiencing some decrease in value.

However to say that it is a bubble in the traditional sense might be misleading. The dollar, along with all other fiat, is constantly losing it's value (to the tune of 90% in the past century). To expect it to further lose it's value isn't really a bold prediction.