
Market Musings - June 27, 2018
We continue our blog series: Market Musings, Volume 2, Edition 20, giving our (hopefully not too random) thoughts on recent goings-on in the markets. Today, we present "Investors Who Forget History..." In these somewhat frothy days (from a market valuation perspective, at least), it is worth remembering what investors were thinking at certain times in the past...and what happened to stocks subsequently. First, let's look at how the market looked to investors as of exactly 89

Market Musings - June 23, 2018
We continue our blog series: Market Musings, Volume 2, Edition 19, giving our (hopefully not too random) thoughts on recent goings-on in the markets. Today, we present "Start of Summer Activist Plays". 1. ICON Activist - recently we have witnessed some activist SEC filings by Sports Direct International (SEC filings here) with respect to Iconix Brands (ICON) (SECs here). Sports Direct is headed by the relatively reclusive British billionaire Mike Ashley: Suffice it to say tha

Market Musings - June 10, 2018
We continue our blog series: Market Musings, Volume 2, Edition 18, giving our (hopefully not too random) thoughts on recent goings-on in the markets. Today, we present "Ackman's Back; Time to Back Ackman". When celebrity hedge fund manager Bill Ackman appeared on the cover of Forbes in May 2015 as "Baby Buffett" (above), in retrospect it marked his "Sports Illustrated Curse" moment. Over the past three years, Ackman's perfect billionaire life has seemingly imploded, marred by

Market Musings - June 6, 2018
We continue our blog series: Market Musings, Volume 2, Edition 17, giving our (hopefully not too random) thoughts on recent goings-on in the markets. Today, we present "Value in Supervalu? Blackwells' SVU Activist Campaign". A new activist has emerged on the scene: Blackwells Capital. Blackwells is run by Jason Aintabi, whose bio can be found here. On March 22, 2018, Blackwells announced that they are running a proxy contest to place six of their nominee directors on the BoD

Market Musings - June 4, 2018
We continue our blog series: Market Musings, Volume 2, Edition 16, giving our (hopefully not too random) thoughts on recent goings-on in the markets. Today, we present "Shots Fired At David Einhorn". Back on April 23, 2018, David Einhorn gave a presentation at the Sohn Investment Conference on Assured Guaranty (AGO) - SEC filings here - wherein he basically stated that the insurer was massively under-reserved. The full presentation can be found here. Based on a cursory review

Market Musings - June 2, 2018
We continue our blog series: Market Musings, Volume 2, Edition 15, giving our (hopefully not too random) thoughts on recent goings-on in the markets. Today, we present "Market Musings of the Day for June 2nd". Back after a bit of a hiatus, we resume our random musings. Here is a list of items we are keeping tabs on in the market: 1. Newell Brands (NWL) - SEC filings here - this company has been the subject of activist proxy campaigns by not one, but two, big names: Starboard