Archive - Apr 2010 - Blog entry

How many ways can a Wall Street Banker bend over an institutional client before they scream "ouch"??? Let me count the ways (with a spreadsheet, may I add)...

Meet the Mad Hedge Fund Trader in person and debate the investment issues of the day. See you in San Francisco on April 23 and New York on May 7.

There is a consensus emerging on Canadian pension reform - one that might have implications for US and global pension funds.

The risks To Blockbuster are well publicized today. The company is fighting off competitors on all fronts with Netflix, Redbox, and OnDemand steadily eroding share from brick and mortar competitors. But Blockbuster’s senior subordinated notes maturing May 2012 are trading below twenty five cents on the dollar today. Investors with an above-average level of risk tolerance may want to give these bonds a closer look. If management can simply execute on its strategic plan, investors stand to make a substantial profit in a very short amount of time. We note that the days of Blockbuster Domination are clearly over, but investors only need a few quarters of stabilization and a briefly extended survival timeline to earn outsized returns.

Derivatives will remain a murky swamp unless we break up the too big to fails ...

Hmmm! Greek bonds and banks are getting battered after the Greek rescue package was announced. To think, some actually thought this would help. Giving a highly indebted country more debt at a rate that it can't afford while everybody lies about the state of its indebtedness does absolutely nothing to aid said country. See, I encapsulated this entire post in 1 sentence...

Prepaid legal gets an SEC update and offers a sneak peek at its quarterly results, most likely to help support its stock through more corporate buybacks.

Is is only me who sees absolutely non-sensical, bubblicious issues coming through the news wires at an increasingly quickening pace? Some of this stuff is ridiculous.

Some thoughts on fixing our ailing pension system. Please provide me with your comments on this important topic.

If only they had known ... Oh, wait ...

What was the joke about the lawyer and the appraiser?

Add bad banks, high NPA to GDP ratios, dramatically overly optimistic growth assumptions, and unrealistic perspectives on taxation, and you get a capital "I" in the PIIGS acronym!

Morgan Stanley closed this deal in June, 2007 at the point when the residential markets were crashing. It defies the imagination why they would at this critical moment raise and commit $8.8 billion to the commercial real estate market. What were they thinking? Hint: fees.

I'm about half convinced on this lady. I'd like to get convinced on the other half.

Finally, some good news on the pension front. The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) recorded a 15% rate-of-return for the year ending Dec. 31, 2009. Not only has the plan hit a record high of C$31.1-billion of assets-under-management, but it is now 102% funded, which means its 250,000 employees and retirees can breath a sigh of relief that they won’t see any benefit cuts or contribution increases for the foreseeable future. Larger public pension funds should take notice. HOOPP is running HOOPPs around the competition.