muscleman

Last year a few respected super investors talked about Japan, such as Pabrai. Now Japan wants to end the deflation, and Yen is trading at over 100, I think the Japanese financials and manufacturers will probably enjoy the better macro environment. Right now even the mega banks like MTU are trading at 80% of book value.

What are the best ways to play this major trend? We can buy gas producers with the lowest cost, like XCO and UPL. We can also buy oil producers with a lot of gas in production, like SD. What other options do we have? Pipeline construction companies? Auto companies that will launch nat gas trucks?

Does anyone have a solid view on the natural gas prices? Last week is supposedly the last storage withdraw week, and normally gas demand in April is the weakest, yet the gas price keeps going up. It is over $4.11 today. :o

His track record seems to be only slightly better than the index. Doesn't seem to be as stunning as Bruce Berkowitz or Eddie Lambert. ::)

txlaw, I quite like the idea of XCO being an investment vehicle. However, if they don't get any deals, according to their 10-k, their current net acres is around 500,000. This is much smaller than SD's Missisipian Lime alone. (1,750,000). SD's market cap is around $2.65 Bn and XCO is around 1.5bn, and SD has 44% oil production in it, so I am not sure if XCO is really that undervalued?

Contango Oil & Gas MCF: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/mcf-contango-oil-gas/msg93785/#msg93785 Contango got hit really hard by the recent drop in natural gas liquids prices. NGLs used to be their main source of revenue. I think that MCF is clearly better managed than almost everybody else out there. What they're doing makes sense and the long-term track record is amazing (you can go back all the way to Zilkha Energy... Contango's exploration partners are from Zilkha). Thank you very much! I will look into that! :)

What's the best way to play the nat gas theme? I have XCO, SD and CHK. I think each of them has a different risk profile. Anything else that would be interesting to buy?

The only difference is that the Government of Ireland actually took measures to fix the country's problems, while the Greeks seem to be more interested in denying/delaying. Buying into temporary disorder is potentially interesting, but buying into perpetual chaos? Not sure this is the best idea! SJ Greece is certainly not as strong as Ireland. Still this is interesting to study. I remember in 2012 Q4 letter, Dan Leob also pointed out that they bought a ton of Greece national debt and feels bullish about Greece's future.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/goldman-moves-to-comply-with-volcker-rule/ I still don't understand how volcker rule applies to the banks. Does this mean banks cannot trade derivatives, or it even means banks cannot hold common stocks of other companies? Investment banks like GS generate most of its profits from trading. I still don't understand what trading it conducts. I know it does some market making. What exactly will GS be affected in terms of trading department?

Thank you Plan. What is the expected loss from GS if they lose this case? Do you think at $103, GS is an undervalued stock? Its EPS has been pretty erratic in the past. Sometimes $20 a year and sometimes less than $10. It is difficult to understand its business. But I am pretty sure they are the most talented folks in their industry.