Hottest links for Sunday August 18th, 2013 (see Friday’s edition of hottest links here). Top stories for the past few days include; The FBI buys pump and dump penny stocks in an effort to stop criminals; With home values rising, ads that are reminiscent of the housing bubble are popping up; From the founding of the railroads to the present day Herbalife fight; Marissa Mayer does a Vogue shot, and everyone on Wall Street in the Hamptons is talking about it; The first session of Scotch & Stocks; A really good distressed debt investor has some advice for people starting their own shop; Want to buy some Carlos danger weiners? Your in luck!; Berkowitz bets big on Fannie/ Federal National Mortgage Association (OTCBB:FNMA) and Freddie Mac/ Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (OTCBB:FMCC), that and much more below.
Note this will be the last hottest links for the next few days. We will resume late this week or next week! You can now get our hottest links (and/or other categories) by email, check it out.
Hottest Links: Stories
It’s a Bad Time to Be Selling Claims on Your Home Equity
With home prices rising, some people might be thinking about what to do with their home equity, and lots of advertisements can be seen for lots of things to make some extra cash, but they might not all be such a great idea. [Eric Petroff, CFA Institute]
The Great Herbalife Corner Of 2013…??
It all started with two western railroads needing access to Chicago and all of the rail traffic that flowed through there. Adventures in capitalism takes you from the early days of America to the 2013 twitter battles over the now famous MLM company known as Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) [Kuppy, Adventures in Capitalism]. Speaking of Herbalife, Tim Ramey, the blunt DA Davidson analyst who covers the company has a new note out on the company. See a brief excerpt below (and if your not following me your missing lots of great stuff).
DA Davidson analyst/ $HLF troll Tim Ramey in his latest report (no position) pic.twitter.com/gX1n4c0Juo
— Jacob Wolinsky (@JacobWolinsky) August 18, 2013
MLP ETF Expenses Hit The Fan
MLPs will now have to report their expense fees and some of the numbers may really shock you. See with your own eyes to believe. [Ron Rowland, Invest With An Edge]
The FBI Manipulated Some Penny Stocks
The FBI actually purchased some scam penny stocks in an effort to catch stock manipulators. This might send like a joke, but Matt Levin found some great info by scouring SEC documents charging several people in Florida with fraud. [Matt Levin, Deal Breaker]
A New Approach to Deposit Insurance
The Cyprus model included depositors at banks taking a hit on their money. This has lead to people asking in the Euro-Zone (and elsewhere) whether their savings are safe? See an idea for a new idea for deposit insurance from the always great… [Frances Coppola and Euronomist, Prag Cap]
Investment Philosophies: Maximize Or Satisfice?
What is your investment philosophy? Think quickly, close your eyes and now write down what you came up with. If you didn’t come up with something pretty quickly it is likely you are investing by the seat of your pants. [Josh Brown, Abnormal Returns]
Marissa Mayer Survived Turning 37, Found Out It Wasn’t So Bad
When I turned 37, I put on a strong face, but I was not looking forward to 37. But 37 turned out to be a pretty amazing year says Marissa Mayer. The CEO of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) starred on the cover of Vogue and gave a glimpse at what the company might be planning to do with all that Tumblr porn. [Bess Levin, Deal Breaker]
The Concept Of A Bond Market Sell-Off
Bond yields have soared over the past couple of months, but when looking at the long term picture, bonds have been in a bull market for quite some time. [Matthew Boesler, Business Insider]
On Starting a Company
This post is about 3 lessons I’ve learned starting a company. I could probably expand this list into many many many more things I’ve learning via mistakes, failures, etc, but I think this list of three are paramount to building a successful organization. [Distressed Debt Investing]
Embracing Chaos & Randomness
A good post on behavioral finance, specifically related to randomness and chaos, from [pmjar]
Fairholme Fund May Increase Bet on Fannie, Freddie
Bruce Berkowitz is betting big on the GSEs, Fannie/ Federal National Mortgage Association (OTCBB:FNMA) and Freddie Mac/ Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (OTCBB:FMCC), with the assumption that the Government will not privatize the holders of $10 trillion in mortgage debt. [Kirsten Grind and Nick Timiraos, WSJ]
Marissa Mayer, Please Don’t Screw Up Yahoo! Finance
Marissa Mayer’s next job reportedly is to tackle Yahoo! Finance, but as an avid user, journalist, and someone who has Yahoo! Finance as part of his daily life, I’m pleading with her: please be gentle. [Chris Ciaccia, The Street]
Hedge Funds Aggressively Sell Volatility, Treasuries and Ags
Hedge funds seem convinced that stock market is going through a lull period or at least that is what the level of negative bets on S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX)’s volatility index shows. [Value Walk]
Stocks & Scotch – The First Beta
A must follow in twitter, Sverre Rørvik Nilsen hosted a stocks & scotch with stocktwits. The topics discussed included, Carl Icahn and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), George Soros’ bet on doomsday, Elon Musk plans a hyper loop (is this peak Musk), fine scotch whiskies and more. [Finansakrobat]
Egypt’s Churches Burned, Police Killed by Morsi Loyalists
Supporters of Mohamed Morsi are rioting across Egypt. The international media has done a terrible job of coverage and Egyptian media has been polarized on the topic. See some coverage from a Egyptian affiliate owned by Reuters on that topic. [ Value Walk]
‘Carlos Danger’ Brand of Weiners Enters the Food Market
Carlos Danger wieners are not available at your local supermarket. No we are not joking, and check out the packing on these franks nicknamed after twice disgraced politician, Anthony Weiner. [Alana Abramson, ABC]
