Hottest links for Friday August 30th, 2013 (see Thursday‘s edition of hottest links here). Top stories for the day include…….. finally someone comes to the defence of Bill Ackman, who has been under great criticism for his investments in J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) and Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF); Jeff Gundlach is back from the dead; Aswath Damodaran is offering some new features for all the value junkies who love reading his writings and checking out material from his NYU lectures; This hedge fund lost 96 percent in just two months, John Paulson move aside; The non value value fund; Meet the man who everyone wants to meet when it comes to the most talked about MLM company these days; Tips for the big anticipated Twitter IPO, and how it can avoid the fate of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB); The case for simplicity when it comes to value investing; How to dress at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS); Think inflation is nowhere to be found? Just ask the tooth fairy and you will see Ben Bernanke is a liar. That and lots more for the 10 people not on vacation yet in today’s hottest links.
Hottest Links: Stories
Bill Ackman’s Admirable Antics
The word on Wall Street is that Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge-fund manager, has jumped the shark. Between a $500 million loss on an almost $1 billion investment in J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), and more than $300 million in losses on a billion-dollar-plus short position in Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), Ackman has wigged out, the whisperers say. [William D. Cohan, Bloomberg]
Herbalife billionaire brawl puts spotlight on N.J. professor
In the battle of Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), both sides – including firms led by billionaires Bill Ackman and George Soros – have consulted a New Jersey college professor and studied his research who is considered THE expert on MLMs. Check out this really interesting article on the man who everyone wants to talk to about Herbalife. [Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Jennifer Ablan, Reuters]
Jeff Gundlach Likes Mortgage REITs
Jeff Gundlach has come out of the closet (no not that one). The famous bond guru whose every action is watched by the media was on CNBC yesterday. Gundlach thinks that mREITs might be a good buy, but he is not a fan of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to say the least.. [Michael Aneiro, Barron’s]
IPO Lessons For Twitter
Twitter is gearing up for a big IPO. Here are three lessons the one social media network which I am obsessed with can learn from Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) IPO disaster. [Richard Waters, FT] Via AbnormalReturns
How To Dress At Goldman Sachs
Tips for Surviving a Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) Internship and Attending a Sporting Event With Your Boss, GS Elevator gives some good advice on how to dress if you are at the most prestigious investment bank (always a comical read). [GS Elevator, Business Insider]
Hedge Fund That Lost 96% Survived Long Enough
That Ebullio Capital Management’s Commodity Master Fund would be liquidated is not a surprise: Most hedge funds that lose 96% in two months meet such a fate. [Jon Shazar, DealBreaker]
Carl Icahn Boosts Nuance Stake To 16.9 Percent
Carl Icahn boosted his investment in Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) and might be looking for some board seats. We were the first to report that Icahn would be going activist on the maker of technology for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Siri. We have not confirmed, but we believe that the recent investment in Apple could be related to NUAN buy. [ValueWalk]
Industry’s Lowest Value With Deepest Discounted Stock Price
Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (OTCMKTS:GLUX) is a regional airline company. It operates as an independent carrier in the United States. Great Lakes Aviation is a tiny OTC listed nano cap that is illiquid. 47.30% is held by insiders. [ShadowStocks]
Five Lessons About The Value Of Money
The always great Monevator has a new post on five lessons he learned from his father on the value of money. [The Investor, Monevator]
Strive For Simplicity
Some value investors, Seth Klarman is a perfect example, think the best way to find value is in mis-understood, complex companies which most investors ignore. However, take J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) for example. Turnarounds are not simple, they’re like billiard balls. For an investment in J.C. Penney to work out well many things need to go right, so Nate argues that value investors should focus on simple securities and ignore the complex hard to understand one. [Nate Tobik, Oddball Stocks]
Pharmstandard – The Russian Job
A couple of weeks ago, when I analyzed EGIS PLC GYOGYSZERGA (OTCMKTS:EGPGF) and other Eastern European Generic drug companies, I mentioned OJSC Pharmstandard (LON:PHST) as one of the big players in the interesting Russian Generics market says the man behind a great value blog. Check out his always insightful write ups [ValueAndOpputunity]
Make $377,000 trading Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in one day
A Berkeley professor finds out just how much a certain type of high frequency trading costs the average investor, check out this new interesting study on the topic of HFT. [Rob Curran, CNNMoney]
A ‘Value’ Fund By Another Name Is Not the Same
Lots of fund marketing is built around the word “value.” The Brobdingnagian Large Cap Value Fund, the Glubbdubdrib Necromancer Island Value Fund, etc. Check out this fund which is actually a value fund but doesn’t use the name! [Brendan Conway, Barron’s]
Value Investing Challenge Reveals Winning ‘Buy Side’ Trading Ideas
The early results are in for the second annual Value Investing Challenge, a trading idea contest created by the Value Investing Congress, and the results are pretty impressive, these guys crushed the market. Check it out here. [John Jannarone, The Wall Street Journal]
MOOCs and Books: Spanning the Digital Divide
Some new details from the famous value investor/NYU professor on some exciting things he is offering to readers and followers of his blog. [Aswath Damodaran]
Not the Onion
Tooth Fairy inflation: Price Of A Tooth Nears $4
Days of finding a quarter under your pillow are long gone. The Tooth Fairy no longer leaves loose change. Kids this year are getting an average of $3.70 per lost tooth, a 23 percent jump over last year’s rate of $3 a tooth, according to a new survey by payment processor Visa Inc (NYSE:V), released Friday. [Joseph Pisani, The Big Story]
