Raise the banner and wave the flag—last week, jobless benefit claims dropped by 34,000, which was enough to bring us to the lowest level we’ve had since July of 2008. One company that clearly benefited from this news was workforce consultation and human capital provider Volt Information Sciences Inc (NYSE: […]
Monthly Archives: December 2010
Epic Advisors added Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to their Bottom-Up Analysis model this month. BBY has been the subject of some investor apprehension lately for a few reasons, among them: There was a concern that the free shipping promotions offered by competing retailers would make BBY seem less attractive to […]
When we interviewed J. Stephen Castellano of Ascendere Associates last month about his Systematic Long-Only model, we found his take on consensus estimates interesting. Consensus estimates (see definition) are provided by most media outlets like Yahoo Finance that have financial news and stock information. What was interesting about the Ascendere […]
London-based Lazar Dzamic created this infographic in the format of a subway map, entitled ‘The Ride of Your Life’, to illustrate some of the darker sides of capitalism. Click to enlarge: Dzamic, a Digital Planning Director at Kitcatt Nohr, describes his motivation: It was inspired by two books: Robert Cialdini’s ‘Influence: the […]
An illuminating ongoing series in The New York Times examines recent changes in women’s prominence and economic impact on societies around the world. Today’s piece focuses on shifting work schedules in Holland, where more fathers in demanding professions are moving to a 4-day workweek to allow a day with their young […]
December 23rd and at the same $7.78 on December 29th. United Continental Holdings (UAL) had a closing price of $23.41 on December 23rd and $23.46 on December
model has been available since February. But Mark now has a new model — Opportunistic Arbitrage Long Only. The difference between the two: while Mark might
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman Sachs released their weekly index of chain-store sales this week. The report (found here) shows that chain store sales during the week of December 25th were up 1 percent from the prior week and up 4.8 percent year-over-year. This was especially […]
Model manger Jeff Philips is a Harvard University graduate and a former division finance manager for Wells Fargo. This month he added a few new positions to his Long-Short Equity model, including Exide Technologies (Nasdaq: XIDE). XIDE had a big jump in price between November 1st, when it closed at […]
New York artist William Powhida produced this drawing on the dynamics of the current art market, entitled “A Guide to the Market Oligopoly System” (click for larger version): Reuters’ finance blogger Felix Salmon recently bought the drawing, and Salmon now has an indepth analysis of it that’s required reading for anyone […]
In their Large Cap model, manager Gator Capital Management invests in 30 large cap companies. They use fundamental research to determine which companies to add to the model and review earnings releases and conference calls to help narrow the choices down. They also talk to company managers to clarify any […]
BTC Impex takes a generalist approach to investing with no focus on any particular industries or sectors. They specialize in value stocks and use a combination of top down analysis with bottom up fundamental analysis. They attempt to identify companies that are either fundamentally strong or weak and find both […]