For the first time in the current crisis, the US government has managed to rescue a financial institution without severely diluting the common shareholders. In this case, the shareholders of Citigroup were luckier that those of Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and AIG. Perhaps the government finally realized that short sellers are going to [...]
Entries from November 2008
C : A stab at valuation
November 30th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Tags: Stock reports
Does a plummeting share price affect underlying value? The lesson of Citigroup
November 23rd, 2008 · 2 Comments
Value investors take it for granted that a company’s stock price does not necessarily reflect or impact the underlying business. Of course, declining stock prices often reflect fundamental problems in the business, but in times of crisis, stocks may sink for no reason whatsoever, frequently overshooting even the most pessimistic economic scenario. While a declining [...]
Tags: Investment articles · Stock reports
RCI : A wobbly monopoly
November 18th, 2008 · 1 Comment
After reading about Rogers Communications from TMWTFS, I decided to evaluate if RCI is a possible defensive portfolio holding in these turbulent times. Rogers Communications (RCI) is an integrated telecommunications company based in Canada, and has 3 operating segments, wireless, cable and media. Their wireless segment makes up 50% of revenue, and 70% of operating [...]
Tags: Stock reports
Parking cash in TIPS
November 7th, 2008 · No Comments
TIPS, short for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, are bonds which provide a degree of inflation-protection and are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. The principal of a TIPS increases with inflation (as tracked by the CPI-U published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) and decreases with deflation, and interest [...]
Tags: Stock reports
Calendar effects and October crashes
November 4th, 2008 · No Comments
The finance literature is littered with examples of many calendar effects in the stock market; the following is a partial list :
The weekend effect : The mean return from buying stocks on Friday and selling them on Monday is larger than buying stocks on Monday and selling on Friday. This is especially unusual since the [...]
Tags: Investment articles

