ubuy2wron
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Posts posted by ubuy2wron
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I was very lucky to have the opportunity to buy Walter Gretzky dinner one evening he is without a doubt one of the nicest most generous men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting
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Parsad, CDS and other hedging tecniques allowed entities to turn inherently risky investments to be turned into investments with no more risk than the least risky investments, US treasuries, the final irony is that these investments have rapidly been turned into US treasuries and US treasuries have become much riskier as a result.
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Reading between the line it certainly looks like a group blew up New Century on purpose and it is likely they have been active in buying the pieces from the wreckage at cents on the dollar. It is sad how enuff dough washes away all sins in the publics eye, Joe Kennedy was a boot-legger and a stock manipulator yet he became Ambassador to Britain and first chairman of the SEC. In Canada we have the example of the Bronfmans who were active bootleggers yet the second generation became the penultimate members of the CDN. establishment. Millken I believe has a lifetime ban from acting as a director of public co''s yet he appears to find others who will do his bidding. Reading some of the stuff on Deep Capture is like reading a book review of "How to destroy the capitalist system for fun and profit"
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Any ideas on how to short this housing bubble? I don't see anything besides taking a short positions in the banks.
Cheers
Michael
Genworth is a private mortgage insurer in Canada it trades as a separate co. in Canada. I have done very little due dilligence on this however they are guaranteeing a huge amt of mortgages. Anyone with an opinion pro or con on this fire away.
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The lawyers are circling on the Zentih deal
They can stuff it! They're not getting a penny more on this deal. Prem is paying up already unlike the Odyssey initial offer. Cheers!
I take it you do not have a position in Zenith unlike you had in Odyssey then. LOL ;D
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Viking, If you are movng to Langley you should check out the community of Fort Langley it is one of my favorite places in the Valley
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I have lived in VCR all of my life I am in fact a 3rd generation Vancouverite a rather rare bird .. The NBC coverage of the Olympics is a big wet kiss, the aerial shots etc are stunning.
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Not adding to my last 5 purchases the 2 weeks I was on vacation in Maui. The last 5 purchases I made in the previous 4 months appreciated on avg. 400% off their March lows, I could have paid for the condo I stayed in with the profits I left on the table. Think BAC, BSC, MSSR, ING,CLS
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Buy the ones who are shrinking their business and sell the ones who are not.
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I have added here but only marginaly. On another note has anyone noticed that with the elimination of the US listing the volatilility has appeared to decline. The liquidity has dropped by over 50% yet the volatility has declined as well ,all of the liquidity added to the mkts is supposed to reduce volatilty yet at least in FFH''s example it has in fact had just the opposite effect. I am starting to form an opinion that the black box traders option market makers short sellers etc are having the exact opposite impacts on prices that proponents of said strategies claim.
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10.56 @ CIBC wood Gundy. Bankers usualy have 5 or 6 techniques to pick your pocket and are inventing new ones every day. ;D
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In this missive he clearly dissed Templeton as being washed up 20 years ago. This was the same Sir John who made hundreds of millions shorting internet stocks in 1999 and 2000 in the months before the insider lock-up agreements expired! Bill Gross is clearly very bright and at the top of his game but we have had the best 20 year run for fixed income in 100 years ,I smell an awful lot of hubris here.
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The message this sends to the markets is not so good. If you cheat and get caught you cut a deal with the SEC and give the money back an d promise not to do it again. Also it interesting the stance that one of the miscreants took they shorted in their personal accounts and bought with their clients dough. They have a fiduciary responsibility with their clients when you have a fiduciary responsibility you CAN NOT take the opposite side of the trade as principal.
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I own some Westaim which had the destinction of being a net-net. It is being reorganized and recaptialized and acquiring an insurance company from Kingsway Financial. This site is deep in inurance knowledge and insight any opinions on this transaction or any of the players would be appreciated.
TORONTO (Dow Jones)--Kingsway Financial Services Inc. (KFS) has agreed to sell its stake in Jevco Insurance Co. to money manager Westaim Corp. for about C$263 million to repay debt.
The sale also enables the troubled Canadian property and casualty insurer to shore up its capital. Kingsway, which is embroiled in a lawsuit with the Pennsyvlania government over its U.S. unit Lincoln General Insurance Co., has been shedding units to stay afloat. Jevco, which specializes in non-standard auto, and property and liability insurance, was considered one of its better subsidiaries.
"As far as the company remaining a going concern, this is a pretty good step towards that," says Dean Evans, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. in New York. "There's a big chance that they'll end up taking a lot more losses due to the Lincon General lawsuit, so they needed to shore up their capital, which this does. They're selling off everything they can."
Kingsway shares are up 32 Canadian cents, or 21%, to C$1.84. Westaim is also up 10 Canadian cents, or 22%, to 53 Canadian cents.
Toronto-based Kingsway is selling Jevco at a price equal to 94.5% of the unit's book value as of Dec. 31. The company will also receive a dividend of up to C$40 million from Jevco before the deal closes, expected on or around March 31.
In November, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department took legal action against Kingsway when the insurer tried to sell Lincoln General by donating the company's stock to charity in what the Department called "sham transactions."
"The fear is that Kingsway is forced to take Lincoln General back, and then, they're responsible for all of its liabilities, and the potential hole at Lincoln General is anybody's guess," says Evans. "The best thing for Kingsway is to shore up its capital, and get as much capital as they can so if they are forced to take Lincoln General back, they can cover the losses."
The company said in a statement it plans to immediately purchase sufficient debt to ensure it satisfies all its financial covenants. Conditional debt-repurchase agreements have been executed in respect of about US$47 million of its debt. Kingsway wasn't immediately available to comment.
As reported late last year, Kingsway announced plans to sell its majority stake in Jevco, but was aiming to remain a "non-influential" investor. News of the deal at that time led to downgrades by both A.M. Best and S&P due to liquidity concerns.
Westaim, an Alberta investment company with C$70 billion in assets, is managed by former Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan fund manager veterans, Leo de Bever and Brian Gibson. Following this purchase, its new focus will be on the Canadian insurance business.
To finance the deal, Westaim expects to issue 550 million subscription receipts at 50 Canadian cents each to raise C$275 million. Each receipt will entitle the holder to receive one share of Westaim.
-By Caroline Van Hasselt, Dow Jones Newswires; 416-306-2023; caroline.vanhasselt@dowjones.com
(Judy McKinnon, Dow Jones Newswires; 416-306-2100; judy.mckinnon@dowjones.com contributed to this story.)
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=XEDvhaD9Q%2FqK9fJIaH6T9g%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 25, 2010 13:46 ET (18:46 GMT)
Copyright © 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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Category Codes:
Africa(R=AFR), Cameroon(R=CM), Central Africa(R=CAFR), Americas(R=AMR), Canada(R=CA), North America(R=NAMR), Health Care (Industry)(I=HCR), Healthcare (Supersector)(I=HR), Financials(I=FIN), Insurance(I=IN), Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology(I=PB), Nonlife Insurance(I=INS), Property & Casualty Insurance(I=INP), Financial Services(I=FSV), Currencies(M=CUR), Equities(M=E), Corporate Actions and Events(C=CAE), Mergers & Acquisitions(C=MNA), Money & Finance(G=MF), Stock Price Index(G=SPI), Stocks & Bonds(G=SAB), Economics & Trade(G=ET)
Companies:
WESTAIM CORPORATION (THE)(WED-T), KINGSWAY FINANCIAL SERVICES INC(KFS-T)
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The Cundill Value Fund are deep value investors they have been investing in Japan for 30 plus years. I would start by kicking the tires on some of their Japanese positions. Lazy mans way I know but then I'm lazy.
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Government should not have a say in corporate compensation issues. However govt. should immediately pass legislation that allow shareholders a say. What passes for democracy is a joke for most public companies. The only way I can be assured to have a say on compensation or any other very important issue is to own 50% plus 1 share of a public co. When I reach that magic number I then can plunder the company at will. Nominating committees of the boards for future board members should be comprised entirely of non-related institutional shareholders and large individual shareholders and their selection should be entirely free from any input from management.
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Please do not throw anything at me and this is NOT for the faint hearted and if you still own it 18 months from now you are on your own but Air Canada. It is not going to zero in the next 12 months thanks to patient creditors and it could earn on per share basis what it is trading for right now in 2010
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Funny I ran across just that myself yesterday I was looking for a hedge and thought of the Vix and then started to look at the options and saw the same phenomenon. I purchaed VXX which is an ETF that trade off the the VIX at the close today I frankly feel that the mkt is about to get a little bumpy
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Aubrey is the poster child for egregious self dealing in my opinion. He did a fabulous job in building the company and long term shareholders benefited hugely because of his acumen. He was compensated enormously through options and other compensation ,sheer hubris cost him his fortune however. The board repriced his options after his margin call and did some of the other stuff mentioned . Heads I win Tails you lose compensation schemes are a pox on the capitalist system.
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Here is a link that appeared on another thread that refers to unaffordability. If you plug in current values I think Vancouver is likely the #1 in the unaffordabilty index in the English speaking world. Someone was asking about short ideas if you think a serious decline is likely Genworth Canada may be a fertile choice. I have not dug deep enough to take a position but throw it out there as an idea.
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Sharper you have clearly one of the more analytical minds on this board however I have thought long and hard about real estate and relative valuations my thoughts lead me to the conclusion that we are in very dangerous territory re Vancouver real estate and that prices are about to turn dramatically negative and the "Big Mac" affordability ratio is in fact usefull and does pretty much describe relative valuations between markets. Is it perfect no but it will do.Think in terms of the houses on the 'nice' waterfront going for 200K & the average joes house 3 blocks in going for 125K. The waterfront people stop buying; their house now sells for 140K (30% less) & joes house sells for 110K (12% less), the new 'average' price for that city.
The waterfront house sold for what someone else was willing to pay (for whatever reason). Joes house sold for maybe 3x the average worker income in that city.
The stats themselves ? Pretty meaningless
SD
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Thank you for the Demographia link I live in Vancouver my home is going to go up for sale.
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Apparently, Goldman Sachs call to buy BRIC economies was the call of the decade, but I would put either Prem's or Paulsen's call on the mortgage industry the call of the decade. Cheers!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=adQVT5VaMAiE&pos=15
According to the NYT, GS could also be given the gold medal for its Mortgage Call:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/24trading.html?_r=1
BTW, anyone know of any GS-FFH relations? (simliar to GS-Paulson mentioned therein)
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I predict if the Dems can maintain control of both houses after the mid term elections a broad VAT type tax will be introduced in the U.S.. A VAT tax plus a reversal of some of the income tax decreases of the last 20 years will be required to pay for the the debt incurred by govts. on our behalf.
Met Wayne Gretzky!
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