While history might not repeat itself, it does tend to rhyme.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the psychological behavior of market participants.  Between 1995-2000, tech stocks and day trading were the rage regardless of valuations.  Ultimately the Nasdaq crashed 75% from the high to the low, wiping our many retirees savings along with...Read More

Warren Buffett’s business partner Charlie Munger is extremely fond of quoting the 1800s German mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi who once said “man muss immer umkehren” which translates to “Invert, always invert.”  The idea is that by looking at problems backwards in addition to forwards, one can identify ways to avoid the problem entirely.  Munger...Read More

When I review different investors portfolios, I’m quite often surprised at the exposure to bond mutual funds.  This has a lot to do with the cookie-cutter asset allocation philosophy that is pervasive throughout the financial advisor community, where recent historical returns are used as a proxy in building a portfolio allocation.  Of course the last...Read More

At T&T Capital Management we have invested in some high yielding bonds from Exco Resources (XCO).  Exco is struggling with extremely low natural gas prices but they have some very valuable assets such as their one-half stake in TGGT, which is a pipeline company.  By selling the pipeline and using the cash to pay down...Read More

The Federal Reserve continues to unwind the various Maiden Lane portfolios at a really nice profit for taxpayers.  Once the Federal Reserve sells the remaining portion of Maiden Lane III AIG should be pretty much done owing any more money.  According to Bloomberg the central bank is owed almost $9 billion on its loan to...Read More

One of my favorite investors Wilbur Ross, was on CNBC this morning.  He discussed the dangers of long term bonds, the long term outlook for natural gas, and he talks about the banking sector as well.  Ross has a fairly large position in the natural gas company Exco Resources (XCO) which he is down on...Read More

The United Kingdom is looking at taking advantage of the current low interest rate environment by issuing 100 year bonds.  I think this is a very intelligent thing for them to do, but I think anyone that buys them would be absolutely insane.  With the U.S. debt load being what it is, locking in today’s...Read More