Today there is a very interesting article on http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-30/longest-s-p-500-valuation-slump-since-nixon-discounting-record-u-s-profit.html showing the immense pessimism priced into US equities, exhibited by the extremely low price/earnings ratios.  Markets go from periods of pessimism to periods of exuberance, but what is striking about the last several years is that at no point has the market rallied to a point...Read More

The general consensus is that the recovery in housing will be slow and will take several years before you see substantial price appreciation.  It is also understood that there is a large shadow inventory which will bog down prices delaying the recovery.  While we have certainly gone through the worst housing crisis since World War...Read More

While all the news lately has been bad for Sears, I found it quite interesting that the CEO who owns 60% of SHLD in his Hedge Fund just bought a huge amount of stock.  Sears has never been an investment based on confidence in its retailing operations and I think that purchases like this speak...Read More

While the market has been performing adequately over the last couple of months we are seeing really impressive performance out of our more contrarian investments such as Assured Guaranty (AGO).  Even after a 54% gain it still trades at only about 70% of book value, and its adjusted book value is actually around $50 per...Read More

There was a significant court ruling that will be a big help to what has been one of our largest positions AGO.  MBIA which is a competitor to AGO in the same line of business one a ruling versus Bank of America about what they need to prove to show losses from fraudulent reps and...Read More

With 2011 coming to a close I think it is very important to lay out our views going into 2012, and how that will affect our investment strategies.  2011 was a very difficult year that saw some of the most successful investors Warren Buffett, Bill Gross, Bruce Berkowitz, John Paulson, Martin Whitman, among many others...Read More

As many of you might be aware, the investment themes that worked best this year were high dividend paying stocks and treasuries.  Many market prognosticators expect the same trends to continue.  It is very important to look at what the dividend payout ratio is which can be calculated by dividing the dividend payout by net...Read More

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas.  Today Sears Holdings announced that they are closing 100-120 stores and that they will be selling the inventory and real estate to raise cash.  While the market has reacted unfavorably to this announcement, we see it as a huge positive from an investor’s point of view.  When...Read More

One position that has been prominent in many portfolios this year is (NLY) or Annaly Capital.  The investment has worked out quite nicely but recently we decided to lock in profits on this high yielding mortgage REIT.  The reason that we exited was because of the expectation that more borrowers will refinance at lower rates,...Read More

Today (JEF) Jefferies released their earnings which drastically beat low expectations, and as a result the stock is up about 20%.  This is an extremely well run investment bank, and the largest shareholder’s are Leucadia, and the CEO Richard Handler.  Both Handler and Leucadia have proven to be extremely astute managers and investors in the...Read More