Month: March 2012

Is this the end of hedge funds as we know it or is the economy just desperate for advertising dollars. Maybe both but I think the latter. BY AZAM AHMED AND KEVIN ROOSE   Hedge Fund Managers Fare Well (March 29, 2012) Investors may soon get a keyhole view into the cloistered world of hedge funds and private equity firms, thanks to a little-known provision in a new bill that would relax rules on how investment firms can market themselves to the public. The bill, called the Jump-start Our Business Start-ups Act, or JOBS Act, would reverse parts of a … Read more

One of the conclusions of this article is that emerging managers with hot track records fall victim to the law of  large numbers.  They fail to explain how Peter Lynch of Magellan Fund fame managed to stomp the market for so many years managing billions.   Want an Active Investment Manager? Here’s What to Look For By PAUL SULLIVAN Paul Sullivan writes about strategies that the wealthy use to manage their money and their overall well-being.Paul Sullivan’s Columns »Yet investors regularly ask for a mutual fund’s track record over one, three, five years or more before putting their money in. … Read more

Note: The difference between the average of all insider buys vs. the median return.  This suggests that well over half of the insiders performed better than the median of 14.95%.  Our research shows unequivocally you can.  Over the last 12 months we tracked 421 insiders that bought $100,000 or more of their company’s stock.  We omitted from this 10% owners as we view them more like hedge funds than true insiders.  We dont’ look at numbers less than $100,000 because that can be window dressing, simply execs trying to pump up investor confidence. The average return on these insider buys … Read more

Business Insider released an interesting chart from BarCap today that shows the astounding weight that Apple throws around the ring.  Are you holding AAPL?     CHART: What Tech Sector Earnings Would Look Like Without Apple.

The global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group just came out with some interesting statistics on just how important the internet is to day-to-day life.  Just how important is having a connection to you?  The full report can be found here: bcg.perspectives – The Internet Economy in the G-20.  

It’s odd that one of if not the worst performing sector in the market this year is oil and gas service and drilling companies.  Take a look at HAL, SPN, SLB, WFT, BAS, and more.  They are all weak performers.  Yet look at the price of oil near record levels.  So what’s the disconnect?  It’s the fear of dramatic drops in production of natural gas in the U.S.  No question that has already started. Hal and BAS have both said as much in conference calls and regulatory filings.  But they have all also said they expect overall revenues and utilization … Read more

America’s Student Loan To Reach $1.4 Trillion by 2020 by EconMatters By EconMatters   Student loan debt is surging, partly boosted by many who became unemployed during the Great Recession going back to school hoping for a better job prospect.  An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) showed that student loan debt stands at $870 billion nationally, surpassing the nation’s outstanding balance on auto loans ($730 billion) and credit cards ($693 billion) as of third quarter, 2011. via Google Reader (1000+).