wndysrf Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 With so many stocks gyrating wildly up and down, most of the big HedgeFunds are making increasingly concentrated bets on individual issues, in an attempt to get the fund focused solely on "One Decision Stocks" which seem to rise forever with shallow pullbacks. Of course, others attempt to pile into another obscure, no-name stock hoping that it becomes the next 200% winner. And others pile on the short side into a stock that should go down due to "funnymentals", hence the horrific squeezes seen time to time. Today, we had a major blowup that came out of nowhere that nailed 3 big funds, including the esteemed "Eton Park"........ From CBS Marketwatch: PXRE woes may dent big hedge funds. D.E. Shaw, Eton Park, Och-Ziff were big investors in firm By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch Last Update: 1:26 PM ET Feb 17, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Leading hedge funds, including D.E. Shaw & Co., Eton Park Capital Management and Och-Ziff Capital Management, may be dented by PXRE Group's descent into crisis. The three hedge funds were the top investors in the reinsurer at the end of 2005, owning more than 22% of the company's shares, according Thomson Financial data. PXT shares lost about two-thirds of their value on Friday after the reinsurer almost doubled its loss estimate from last year's record hurricane season and lost key financial-strength and credit ratings from A.M. Best, an influential industry rating agency. D.E. Shaw, founded in 1988 by Stanford University Ph.D. David Shaw, has about $19 billion in assets and focuses on quantitative trading and opportunities where technology and finance meet. Eton Park, run by former Goldman Sachs trading star Eric Mindich, became one of the largest hedge fund startups in history when the firm raised billions in 2004. Och-Ziff, which oversees more than $10 billion, was founded in 1994 by Daniel Och. Och worked at Goldman Sachs's risk-arbitrage group in the 1980's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wndysrf Posted February 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 After getting hit in the face with buckshot by the PigMen this week, Shorty packs it in and heads home for the long weekend...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafate Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 With so many stocks gyrating wildly up and down, most of the big HedgeFunds are making increasingly concentrated bets on individual issues, in an attempt to get the fund focused solely on "One Decision Stocks" which seem to rise forever with shallow pullbacks. Real Estate is the new one decision stock. People have forgotten its as cyclical as stocks. It wont be pretty as the real estate bubble deflates. Im seeing land development still proceeding like gangbusters in Texas for both commercial and residential transactions. Lenders are offering easy terms to the developer junkies. The only difference between the land developers and Joe 6 pack is the size of the bakruptcy when cash runs out to serice the debt. On behalf of three family trusts I have handled the sale of three separate pieces of land around Houston in the last year. In each case the family either inherited the land or farmed it actively as they grew up and held the land for over 50 years. In each case the sale was millions on a per acre basis. What is amazing the land was bought for cash originally and now is being bought with bank loans. In each case the value from purchase through sale was around inflation plus 5% per year, with a huge jump over the last 5 years. Over 50 years the value really has gone up. Like Doc, I cut my teeth in the last real estate crash in the 80s and saw good deals dragged down by the bad. Im seeing the wave cresting and curling and not too far off shore. For my portfolio, Im selling off long term munis-which inexplicably have increased in value and buying oil, gas, gold stocks over the last 5 years. Im debt free and moving into Brazil real estate as they have the same funny money currency but dont have the trillions of unpayable debt the USA pretends to carry on the books. You can even get an investor visa for you and the wife for 250 G in a business. When will the Asians call the marker and crash all one decision stocks? I guess they have no alternative currency yet and want to dispose of their greenbacks just like I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 After getting hit in the face with buckshot by the PigMen this week, Shorty packs it in and heads home for the long weekend...... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> that's not the only place they shot me either ouch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchaikofsky Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 4:20 pm: On Friday, the market's major averages traded within a relatively narrow range that was modestly below the flat line. Several factors stunted the market's progress. They included a higher than expected PPI read, disappointing guidance from Dell (DELL 30.38 -1.58), and a rebound in prices across the energy complex. The core (which excludes food and energy) Producer Price Index rose 0.4% in January. That was double the anticipated increase, and it breaks the trend of low figures. Following Fed Chairman Bernanke's assertion that monetary policy decisions will be increasingly dependent on incoming data, the sense that the PPI pop may signal a firming trend raises interest rate concerns. The read may prove an aberration, and it is not a number to panic over. The market did not, but it nonetheless feeds the argument for further rate hikes. Investors await the January CPI report, due Wednesday, which now takes on added importance. Dell was also a primary factor behind today's bias. Like many of its peers, the company delivered a better than expected fourth quarter profit report but issued downside guidance. Intuit (INTU 49.25 -5.55) did the same thing. On its conference call, Dell said that it had nothing to add with respect to the potential use of AMD chips in its computers. As a result, Advanced Micro (AMD 40.40 -1.34) shares slid. Due to those three companies, the computer hardware, application software, and semiconductor industries suffered. NVIDIA (NVDA 47.47 +0.27) lent some support following its upside earnings results and better than expected revenue guidance, but the Tech sector still fell 1.1%. That area of the market weighed heaviest today. Amid what are arguably Dover Sole conditions, prices across the energy complex took Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 hey I just noticed that little mark over on the lower right of the chart wow, what a shanking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brisbane Bear Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 what sort of stuff does Radioshack sell? God help the frivilous stores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeWhee Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 what sort of stuff does Radioshack sell? God help the frivilous stores. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Defective electronics and pimply salesclerks. I guess people are starting to catch on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capitall Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 from a letter from a subscriber to Richard Russell at Dow Theory Letters: "bankers earn by lending at interest and from the influence such lending gives them for other business opportunities and profits=power= profits=power, ad infinitum. a central bank can create deposits, i.e. money out of air--and it's owners will earn interest on all it lends--the more it lends the more it earns. it uses some of that 'created' money to 'buy' the lawmakers of our country so that they will use their legislative power to borrow from that PRIVATELY OWNED central bank "for" the American public--for wars, social programs, space etc--so much that the principal can never be repaid and interest payments will continue forever--that is then indentured slavery--50% a year in taxes, our children to be sent to war without choice when it's profitable --if slavery has another meaning I'd like to hear it. what would you do or feel if you discovered that '70%' of the taxes you pay are for JUST the interest on debts that I HAD THE LEGAL RIGHT to put on YOUR credit card, without asking you-- and that the money was borrowed from my brother-in laws bank--and that this had been going on your whole life---and that your children and even grandchildren would need to work all of their lives to just pay my brother in law--and that in order to have a house and cars and schooling they would have to go privately in debt to my brother in laws associates, the private banks. Henry Ford said that if the American public ever came to understand their banking, financial system there would be a revolution overnight--what do you think he meant by that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capitall Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 from a letter from a subscriber to Richard Russell at Dow Theory Letters: "bankers earn by lending at interest and from the influence such lending gives them for other business opportunities and profits=power= profits=power, ad infinitum. a central bank can create deposits, i.e. money out of air--and it's owners will earn interest on all it lends--the more it lends the more it earns. it uses some of that 'created' money to 'buy' the lawmakers of our country so that they will use their legislative power to borrow from that PRIVATELY OWNED central bank "for" the American public--for wars, social programs, space etc--so much that the principal can never be repaid and interest payments will continue forever--that is then indentured slavery--50% a year in taxes, our children to be sent to war without choice when it's profitable --if slavery has another meaning I'd like to hear it. what would you do or feel if you discovered that '70%' of the taxes you pay are for JUST the interest on debts that I HAD THE LEGAL RIGHT to put on YOUR credit card, without asking you-- and that the money was borrowed from my brother-in laws bank--and that this had been going on your whole life---and that your children and even grandchildren would need to work all of their lives to just pay my brother in law--and that in order to have a house and cars and schooling they would have to go privately in debt to my brother in laws associates, the private banks. Henry Ford said that if the American public ever came to understand their banking, financial system there would be a revolution overnight--what do you think he meant by that? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> BTW, this refers to the Federal Reserve and the US tax payers, but other countries also have central banks. And the central banks of the world affect everyone all over the world immensely, even in countries that do not have a central bank of their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 what sort of stuff does Radioshack sell? God help the frivilous stores. ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Defective electronics and pimply salesclerks. I guess people are starting to catch on. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I've wondered for 20+ years exactly what keeps them going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwd Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 what sort of stuff does Radioshack sell? God help the frivilous stores. ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Defective electronics and pimply salesclerks. I guess people are starting to catch on. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I've wondered for 20+ years exactly what keeps them going. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It is a good place to pick odds and ends, cheap tools such as wire strippers and batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItCan'tBe Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 PXRE Group PXT.......OPPORTUNITY??? I'm actually a pretty risk adverse guy, but when I see a stock killed like this one I've just got to wonder if it's time to take a nibble at these levels. Love to hear some opinions from you gentlemen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brisbane Bear Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 I posted during the week that a fairly large auction group went 'belly up' owing me $1600 . The interesting aspect to this is that I have been selling stuff for the best part of 6 months and noticed the prices achieved had been slowly declining. I actually said to my wife about 6 weeks ago that I wondered how they could possibly make any money when the goods being sold were attracting such miniscule prices.They get a sellers commission of 11%. Now we know,they can't. What I think will really catch most people by surprise is when they go to sell 'stuff',they will be shocked to learn how little second hand stuff is worth. The larger part of this auction house business is second hand cars.This business has really struggled. So many people think that they might sell the 'second car or boat or jetski or caravan and get prices somewhere near what they paid for them. Boy will they get a surprise. I am fairly realistic and I was really surprised by how little I got for my gear. I spread my stuff around 5 different auction houses and still got bugger all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 from a letter from a subscriber to Richard Russell at Dow Theory Letters: "bankers earn by lending at interest and from the influence such lending gives them for other business opportunities and profits=power= profits=power, ad infinitum. a central bank can create deposits, i.e. money out of air--and it's owners will earn interest on all it lends--the more it lends the more it earns. it uses some of that 'created' money to 'buy' the lawmakers of our country so that they will use their legislative power to borrow from that PRIVATELY OWNED central bank "for" the American public--for wars, social programs, space etc--so much that the principal can never be repaid and interest payments will continue forever--that is then indentured slavery--50% a year in taxes, our children to be sent to war without choice when it's profitable --if slavery has another meaning I'd like to hear it. what would you do or feel if you discovered that '70%' of the taxes you pay are for JUST the interest on debts that I HAD THE LEGAL RIGHT to put on YOUR credit card, without asking you-- and that the money was borrowed from my brother-in laws bank--and that this had been going on your whole life---and that your children and even grandchildren would need to work all of their lives to just pay my brother in law--and that in order to have a house and cars and schooling they would have to go privately in debt to my brother in laws associates, the private banks. Henry Ford said that if the American public ever came to understand their banking, financial system there would be a revolution overnight--what do you think he meant by that? I don't get that at all. Over my head. I don't think the Fed gives a crap how much income it is making. After all, it has the "printing press." Is it the Fed's fault that our society is addicted to debt? No. Is it true that 70% of our tax dollars go to pay interest on the debt? Anyway, it sounds like a bunch of paranoid gobbledygook to me. Not that the Fed or any other central bank is doing such a great job... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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