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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bridge Player who wrote (30935)	5/13/2008 4:56:49 PM
From: Paul Senior	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78707

RDN. Yes, still holding RDN. I don't have easily available a total history of my experience with this one. I currently show that I have it in my taxable account, that I haven't made any sales in the past 90 days, that I have shares bought from 10/23/07 -10/25/07 @ $10.63-$13.99/sh,, and one small purchase 2/14/08 @ $7.08. My account shows it's my largest loser by dollar amount of all my many positions. (OUCH) Percentage-wise the loss is about 54%. (ouch) I'm not that worried about it (so far). Let Marty Whitman be worried. He likes the stock he says, and he owns the stock (I believe). It's his fund and his reputation that're on the block with this and others of similar trashed nature. I'm betting that he/his staff of balance-sheet analysts have looked at this thing in enough detail be comfortable with it. These NOL numbers and analyses are mind-numbing (well, to my mind). --- And regarding similar trashed: I recently mentioned I was buying a little [t]ABK[/t]. I am trying also again now with MBIA [t]MBI[/t] --- just for a very few shares. Another bet-along-with-Marty play. (And some other professional value investors too have been buyers. I hope they're all still confidently in.) news.moneycentral.msn.com y

To: Bridge Player who wrote (30935)	5/14/2008 1:30:44 AM
From: Spekulatius	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78707

MBI has a peculiar thing going on. basically it seems thatthey are booking gains because the market value of their obligations has been going down. FASB allows write down the value of you own debt to market-market, if you are a crappy credit. For MBI this adjustment appears to have been 3.6B$ and this is burried deep in the footnotes of theyr 10Q. the headline numbers only state the net market to market losses (net=sum of market to market of assets =liabilities). Of course writing off the value of your own debt is sort of a catch22 situation especially if you want the rating agencies believe that you are AAA worthy. As far as I am concerned balance sheet and income statement with those kind of adjustments are completely worthless...and so is management that pulls 3.6B$ in pseudo equity out of the hat. Greetings from Enron. Somehow i think we have a long long way to go before this is over. The gist is ripped from: www1.investorvillage.com Excerpt from 10Q: The Company adopted the provisions of SFAS 157, “Fair Value Measurements,” excluding non-financial assets and liabilities per FSP No. FAS 157-2, “Effective Date of FASB Statement No. 157,” beginning January 1, 2008. SFAS 157 defines fair value as an exit price, representing the amount that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants. SFAS 157 requires that fair value measurement reflect the assumptions market participants would use in pricing an asset or liability based on the best information available. Assumptions include the risks inherent in a particular valuation technique (such as a pricing model) and/or the risks inherent in the inputs to the model. SFAS 157 also clarifies that an issuer’s credit standing should be considered when measuring liabilities at fair value. SFAS 157 establishes a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs to valuation techniques used to measure fair value. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities (level 1 measurement) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (level 3 measurements). SFAS 157 is effective for financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning after November 15, 2007. In February 2008, the FASB issued FSP No. FAS 157-2, which delayed the effective date of SFAS 157 to fiscal years beginning after November 15, 2008, for all non-financial assets and non-financial liabilities, except those that are recognized or disclosed at fair value in the financial statements on a recurring basis (at least annually). A transition adjustment to opening retained earnings was not required. Upon adoption, the credit valuation adjustment to incorporate the Company’s own nonperformance risk on the insured credit derivatives liabilities resulted in a reduction in fair value of $3.6 billion of the derivative liability as of March 31, 2008.