RR:
Unfortunately no beads, but I do covet that iron skillet you are humping, so how about these muskrat tails? (g)
I had a discussion with one of the largest portfolio managers in Canucksville a few months ago. My pitch was that given their "closet indexed situation" (man, he didn't like that comment, as he is a supposed value guy,.... but of course it was accurate), that his fund should pay attention to, or perhaps even hire) a few short specialists and either reduce the weighting or even dump stocks that are attracting heavy professional short interest. I noted that the shorts always do 4 times the homework typical of long-leaning analysts (to survive) and that they are almost inevitably accurate. My basic argument was that like all fund managers, his interest wasn't in safeguarding his clients dough, but in beating his confreres by a quarter point. By tossing out (or at least reducing the weighting on) the upcoming flops, his portfolio would avoid the heavy smacks taken by all the other "closet indexed" funds and would thus obtain a superior (comparison) return. I even provided tons of recent documented evidence in support of this point of view.
He liked it, but his number two guy did not. Hates shorts. A wasted day, but after the Nortel drain (which was one of my examples), I am tempted to call them up and play that "Nah, nah, nah, na......., nah, nah, nah na,....., hey, hey, hey, etc." song (G)
Best, Earlie |
