This is a ChatGPT-free Zone
Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners bought a 5.1% stake in Lazard recently and has supported Lazard’s new strategic plan. I haven’t looked at these independent advisory firms too closely in the past as they have usually traded at very high levels. The other independent advisory firms are Evercore Partners (EVR) and Greenhill & Co (GHL). Also, revenues are correlated to…
OK, so that’s a dramatic statement. This post will no doubt come across as way too sympathetic to banks, but since I see that the SEC is looking into money market funds, I thought I’d make a post about it. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a while. The banks have been…
I mentioned recently that what I fear most for U.S. banks is what happened in Japan; low interest rates for a long time. If long term interest rates keep going lower, this will put pressure on bank net interest margins and therefore profits. So I decided to take a quick look at this and found…
So I hear this a lot: “With HFT (High Frequency Trading), hedge funds, ETFs and instant trading via iPad apps (and mobile smart and dumb phones), the volatility in the stock market is intolerable. I can’t take it anymore. I’m out!” Or, “with so many darn MBA’s, PHD’s and rocket scientists trying to outsmart the…
So this is just a quick look at an old trade. Tokio Marine Holdings has always been known to own a lot of equities and the stock often traded at a discount to it. A long time ago before insurance companies started to mark their stockholdings to market, it was a classic value play where…
Interest rates are plunging yet again in the U.S., and there is talk now of QE3 again. I’m happy to see things being done to help the economy, but one thing I fear about QE3 is that it will destroy the banking industry. What Worrys Me Most About Banks The JPM trading loss doesn’t worry…
People always talk about L in terms of sum-of-the-parts and whatnot, and I just realized that I never really looked at their returns over time and in different time periods. This may not be necessary as you know the Tischs’ have created value over time as they usually illustrate in their annual reports, and if…
Someone pointed out that the $859 million GLD position was in the form of call options; I missed that (don’t go through filings late at night!) So the increase in the 13F portfolio from $1 billion to $2.2 billion is largely not ‘real’; just an increase due to the reporting of the notional amount of the…
This is not a blog that tracks the buys and sells of hedge funds or anything like that, but I just stumbled on this so I thought I’d post it. (Of course, a hedge fund manager liking gold is hardly breaking news, but…) We all know Stanley Druckenmiller; he needs no introduction (if you do,…
Loews (L) has been, for years, a popular sum-of-the-parts play by value investors and it seems that’s it’s always trading at a discount. I suppose that’s normal for a conglomerate. I am a big fan of L and have a lot of confidence in the Tisch family but one thing has always been nagging me about…