Author: Bristlecone Value Partners Model: Large Cap Value In April, the model portfolio’s value rose by about 2.7%, slightly lagging the S&P 500 monthly increase. Year-to-date as of end of day 4/30/11, the portfolio is up about 9% versus 9.1% for the S&P 500, including dividends. Most sectors rose in April, with […]
Manager: Conrad Leifur Model: S&P 500 Best of Breed The model returned 3.38% in April, roughly 0.5% ahead of the S&P 500. Positions that significantly outperformed their respective sectors and were therefore responsible for the outperformance were Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Costco (NASDAQ: COST), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE), […]
Manager: Focal Point Management Models: Quantitative Broad Index, Quantitative Hedging April saw a continuing rally in the broad financial markets along with a continued decline in volatility. Our portfolios stayed on the long side; a low volatility environment makes tactical counter-move positioning difficult, and our portfolios will be bullishly positioned […]
Models: Deep Value, Earnings Growth, Opportunistic Value, Enterprise Value, Focus Value, Dividend According to Yahoo! Finance, the SP 500 index finished the
Manager: Sreeni Meka Covestor model: Long Term Value According to the recent employment report, non-farm payrolls added a quarter million jobs and unemployment stayed at 9 percent, which is one and a half percent lower than peak 2008 unemployment figures. First quarter GDP edged up a little, to $15 trillion […]
Manager: Gerry Wollert Model: Rebound Mutual Fund Trader The month of April started on a down trend. And then, mid-month, the markets changed direction and trended higher for the balance of the month. This positive performance was encouraging given the continued civil unrest in Northern Africa and the Middle East […]
yield. To accomplish this the strategy has two components: a high dividend stock component and a trading component that trades the SPDR Barclays Capital High
Manager: Don Peters Model: QFT Long Short My long/short model buys stocks with strong fundamentals and technicals and shorts stocks with weak fundamentals and technicals. The strategy is currently (as of 5/9/11) 70% long and 30% short. Despite the continuing bull market, I will always maintain an allocation on the […]
Covestor manager Dan Plettner seeks to exploit inefficiencies in Closed-End Funds and other under-followed exchange-traded securities across multiple asset categories. Dan holds SunAmerica Focused Alpha Growth Fund, Inc. (NYSE: FGF) and SunAmerica Focused Alpha Large-Cap Fund, Inc. (NYSE: FGI), two closed-end funds, in his Covestor Core, Well-Intentioned Activism and Long/Shore Opportunistic […]
Bitcoin is a digital currency that has no central bank issuer and can be exchanged directly online, with no bank intermediary. The goal is to mitigate the instability of fiat currencies, including unpredictable inflation. Here’s how its creators present it: Sounds interesting, and as Matthew Ingram notes, Bitcoin is gaining […]
yield and income. Market expectations (as reflected in Futures and forwards price) are that the Fed Funds Rate will not be raised until 2012. Given that the
Manager: Patrick Clark Model: Market Neutral Growth I will start this commentary by updating last month’s comments on the Yen. The CurrencyShares Japanese Yen ETF (NYSE: FXY) has moved steadily higher since last month. The Yen is strengthening, which is a very good indicator for Japan in my view. I […]