In taking a page from Byron Wein of Morgan Stanley fame, Doug Kass has been listing 20 outlying possible events for the coming year for a while now and in ’08, he absolutely killed it. 60% of his 20 predictions for 2008 came to pass, including some of the more far-fetched ones.
Yesterday, Kass’s 2009 list came out…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaRXuJ0eTDo] “Redemption Calls“, sung to the tune of Bob Marley‘s Redemption Song. Old clients, yes they call I ask me for the NAV. Minutes after I sold stock, into a bottomless pit. But my fund was made strong by the black box it was built on. We trade in this generation, leveraged to the gills….
Quick thoughts on this week’s Barron’s… Cover story on Mark Hurd and the profitability of Hewlett Packard…Yawn. As they say on the Dealbreaker message boards, “too printery, didn’t read”. House of Cards story about credit card companies and their exposure to…to…zzzzzzz, oops, fell asleep again! Not much new in Sandra Ward’s article, but worth a…
Transferring your 401k allows you the option of never having to take physical custody of your funds as they move between your 401k and your new IRA account. This does not get reported to the IRS, so if you transfer it to a broker or firm you aren’t happy with, don’t worry, you still have the ability to move it again within the same calendar year without restriction. This method will allow you to move your securities over (more on this below).
With a Rollover, however, you’ll be getting a check from your 401k sponsor after you request liquidation. You will then have the responsibility to deposit this amount into a rollover IRA account within a a certain amount of time (discussed below). You can only do one rollover a year, so be prepared with a destination you can live with for a little while.
General Motor’s GMAC unit had recieved approval to become a bank holding company…
But here’s the more interesting question…who else could/should apply to become a bank holding company? Below is my not-so-serious list of candidates as more companies and industries look for shelter in this, our Greatest Depression.
Hot Links for Weekend Reading: December 26th, 2008
Based on it’s current stock price of around 8 bucks, WSM has an Enterprise Value (stock market capitalization plus all outstanding debt, minus cash) of about $840 million. We thought it might fun to figure out what else could be bought for the same price as the entire Williams-Sonoma chain (which includes Pottery Barn).
Quick thoughts on this week’s Barron’s… Kopin Tan killed it with massive 2009 outlook-y article…Brady Bunch-style grouping of Chief Market Strategist types from both buy-side and sell-side with their ’09 S&P earnings estimates and targets. Didn’t see Abby Joseph Cohen in there…that’s refreshing. Nice to see some non-bulge bracket people, Jason Trennert from Strategas grabs…
Mark Haines is the best in business. He comes off as completely natural and unpretentious, but can bring the gravitas when the situation calls for it.
These are the days when you either need to have a 20 year time frame or a 20 minute time frame, and either can be extremely profitable. In either case, owning the sector is going to give you all you need in terms of volatility, so leave the stock picking to the masochists.
