Wednesday, July 7, 2010

What are we expecting in July?

The Dow Jones Industry Average rallied on Wednesday after two consecutive months of decline. The Dow surged 274.66 points and ended above 10,000 out of the optimism of the US economy. so, is this optimism justified? Is today's trading a bullish sign? My opinion is not just a 'NO', but not yet.

If we take a look at the historic data, we will find that there has never been a bearish market that lasted more than three years, not even the 1929 market catastrophe. The longest market contraction happened during the 2000 technology stock bubble, which lasted about three years and followed by a big bull market (Shown in the graph below). If this is true, then we can expect to see a bull market soon because it is almost been three year since the market started to tumble during the end of 2007. Therefore, for the worst,we have yet 4 or 5 months left to see the bull coming back. However, we do not need to be that pessimistic. The martket is very likely to rally before the end of this year, if certain conditions can be met.


As for now, I am sticking with my bearish view about the market. I have always held the view that the market will have another big tumble in 2010 after a bullish year in 2009. I was proven to be right as the market went down in May and June. Despite today's big surge, I am still very bearish. Today's big increase is very likely to be a retaliatory surge after the market touched resistance at about 9700. However, it is going to face another price celling at about 10,450. If the market fails to achieve this level in the next couple of days, I will say there will be a big market decline. The Dow could be as low as somewhere around 8500 before the expected bullish market coming in the end of the year. However, if the Dow rises above the celling price in the coming weeks, it is very likely for us to jump right into the bull market I just talked about.


Until then, my suggestion is to be consevative and be prepared for another market dip.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Jim Chanos is Short-Selling Ford

I just heard on Bloomberg today that Ford has jumped as the No 1 car maker in the industry in terms of new car quality. However, just few minutes later, I also heard news that Jim Chanos, the well knowned short seller in Enron and mortgage crisis, has a short position in Ford. Let us hear what are his reasons for doing that.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Hedge Fund Analysis on Dan Loeb's Third Point (2010 Q1)


My next analysis is on Dan Loeb's Third Point, LLC. Dan Loeb's top 10 positions has a return 0f 25 percent this year beating the S&P 500 about 5 percent. We can see his portfolio is quite diverse, so his perfomance is very similer to the market as a whole. He had a lot of trades in the first quarter and in the second quarter. He had a few bad trades in the first semester, such as the Citi Group[C] trade. Dan got out his position on Citi after it went tumbled. And he sold it completely, which the market has told us was a really bad move. Also, he left his position on Popular Inc [BPOP] too early. The stock went up more than 100 percent after he sold the stock.
Total Market Value: $1.4 billion
Top Sector:
29% Financial
16% Technology
13% Health care
6% Capital goods
11% Services
24% Others
Top 10 Holdings
1. PHH Corp (PHH): 7.6%
2. Transdigm (TDG): 6.8%
3. CIT Group (CIT): 6.5%
4. Wellpoint (WLP): 6%
5. Health Net (HNT): 5.3%
6. Liberty Interactive (LINTA): 5.2%
7. OSI Pharmaceutical (OSIP): 5.1%
8. Xerox (XRX): 4.9%
9. Airgas (ARG): 4.2%
10. Walgreen (WAG): 4.0%
Recent Trades:

5/21/10
buy
Airgas Inc [ARG]
$61.48
5/21/10
buy
Liberty Interactive [LINTA]
$12.67
5/21/10
buy
OSI Pharm Inc [OSIP]
$57.38
5/21/10
buy
Walgreen Co [WAG]
$33.10
5/21/10
sell
Cablevision Systems Cp Class A [CVC]
$23.20
5/21/10
sell
Citigroup Inc [C]
$ 3.75
5/21/10
sell
Mead Johnson Nutrition [MJN]
$49.09
2/19/10
buy
CIT Group Inc [CIT]
$32.62
2/19/10
buy
Cablevision Systems Cp Class A [CVC]
$22.91
2/19/10
buy
Citigroup Inc [C]
$ 3.42
2/19/10
buy
Mead Johnson Nutrition [MJN]
$46.58
2/19/10
buy
Wellpoint Inc. [WLP]
$58.47
2/19/10
buy
Xerox Corp [XRX]
$ 9.16
2/19/10
sell
Bank of America Corp [BAC]
$15.86
2/19/10
sell
CF Industries Holdings Inc [CF]
$104.00
2/19/10
sell
Liberty Acquisition Holdings Corp [LIA]
$ 9.75
2/19/10
sell
Molson Coors Brewing Co [TAP]
$40.59
2/19/10
sell
Pfizer Inc [PFE]
$17.80
2/19/10
sell
Popular Inc [BPOP]
$ 2.00
Taken from Alphaclone
"Third Point, LLC is a New York based hedge fund with a focus on activist investing. The firm was founded in 1995 by Daniel Loeb who is know for his vocal and public criticism of management when he views the company as underperforming."