SPECIAL FLORIDA ISSUE Featured Trades: (WORLD MONEY SHOW) 2) The San Francisco Money Show. I attended the Woodstock of investment conferences last week, the World Money Show at the Gaylord Palms Resort near Orlando, Florida. Run with military efficiency that only General George S. Patton could have appreciated, it offered a multi ring circus of
Featured Trades: (THE COMING TAKEOVER WARS) 3) The Coming Takeover Wars. The spate of takeover bids we have witnessed recently, the attempted BHP Billiton (BHP)-Potash (POT) deal, the Sanofi Aventis (SNY)-Genzyme (GENZ) deal, and Intel's (INTC) acquisition of Infineon Technologies (IFX), is telling the rest of us reams about the broader market. Virtually all of
Featured Trades: (JANUARY NONFARM PAYROLL) 1) Reading the Nonfarm Payroll Tea Leaves. Lifetime followers of the monthly nonfarm payroll report were more than a little amused by the Friday numbers, which could not have been more contradictory, conflicting, and confusing. The headline figure showed a gain of a paltry 36,000, yet the unemployment rate
Featured Trades: (NISSAN LEAF), (NSANY) 3) Getting Something for Nothing. I just contracted to buy all the gasoline I want at 14 cents a gallon. No, I have not struck oil in my backyard, or come into an inheritance from a long lost Kuwaiti relative. That is the de facto price that PG&E is billing
Featured Trades: (RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE) 1) Years of Pain to Come in Residential Real Estate. Regular readers of this letter are familiar with my antipathy towards real estate of every flavor, with the exceptions of multi-unit dwellings (apartment buildings) and farmland . So my interest was piqued when Ron Peltier spoke the other day, the
Featured Trades: (HEDGE FUNDS) 2) Who Says Hedge Funds Aren't Adding Value? According to my old friend, Rick Sopher, chairman of LCH Investments in London, the top ten hedge funds have earned $153 billion for their investors since inception. John Paulson's fund alone, which made an absolute killing by shorting subprime mortgage debt instruments going
'I'm sure there are gobs and gobs of money to be made in emerging markets,' said legendary hedge fund manager Bill Fleckenstein on Hedge Fund Radio.
Featured Trades: (SOLAR ENERGY PARITY), (FSLR) 3) Solar Energy is Poised to Achieve Cost Parity. After two years of relentless cost, the solar industry is about to reach the Holy Grail of parity with the cost of conventional power sources at around 10 cents per kilowatt hour, paving the way for and exponential growth in
Featured Trades: (THE YEAR OF THE RABBIT), (FXI), (SSEC), (CYB) 1) Ringing in the Year of the Rabbit. An invitation to the Chinese consulate for their New Year's party is always one of the most sought after invitations in the Lilliputan diplomatic community of San Francisco. Welcoming the Year of the Rabbit were true Mandarins
Featured Trades: (WALL STREET) 3) An Insider's Review of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. One of the great things about flying first class is that you often get to meet some pretty interesting people. During the early eighties, I found myself on a flight from Los Angles to New York sitting next to an unknown
