BenHacker

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 10:30 AM

Re: Op, Op, Op, Op, Oppa Buffett Style

Nice post GC.

Market seems wacky to me. Not in absolute valuation alone (which is high I agree, but maybe not nosebleed) but in market reactions and the myopic focus on certain items (QE) while ignoring many others (China / Japan) at least [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Berkshire Hathaway board. 1:05 AM

Re: BofA warrants

Not the TARP warrants (if that's what you're thinking of?), the ones Berkshire bought.
700,000,000 shares at strike price $7.14.

Thanks Jim, I was confused and indeed thinking of the TARP warrants.

Ben

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BenHacker replied to the Berkshire Hathaway board. 3:21 PM

Re: BofA warrants

"Gosh these are looking pretty good.
In the money by 13.48-7.14 = $6.34 each."

Strike is $13.30... In the money by $0.18 each. All time value...

Ben

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 1:32 PM

Re: Sohn Conference

"Jeff Gundlach, Doubleline – QE will continue. QE makes investors comfortable despite huge risks. Short Chipotle (CMG), a gourmet burrito is an oxymoron. All you need to compete with Chipotle’s core business is a taco truck. [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 3:21 PM

Re: Poll: Percent comparison to October 2007

"1) Now that it is May 2013, we have to learn from the Great Decline and the Great Bounceback. If you asked this question even at the end of 2009 I am sure you would have received different modifications, but not necessarily superior [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 10:17 AM

Re: Poll: Percent comparison to October 2007

I'll ask a follow-up question that hopefully maybe will result in some interesting discussion. What lessons if any have you learned as a result of the past 4 years? Have you made any modifications to your overall investment philosophy, your [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 12:20 PM

Re: Abnormal Profit "Margins"

"That link has $88.5 and $86.4 for 2011 and 2012 real earnings, while S+P and Bloomberg report $97.0 and $102.45 for S+P 500 earnings for those years.

I assure you the inflation rate between Dec 31, 2012 and March 2013 hasn't risen [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 7:44 PM

Re: Abnormal Profit "Margins"

A few comments:

MDC

"Questions...and I don't have the answers so I'm sincerely curious.

1. How does the current trailing ROE of the S&P compare to say a historical average over many decades?

2. On what [more]

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BenHacker posted to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 2:58 PM

Abnormal Profit "Margins"

Simple (not a trick) question(s).

Does it make the level of US company profitability sound more normal or less normal if it is phrased as ROE vs. Net margin? Is this a more or less useful measure?

I find the trailing ROE of the [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 7:04 PM

Re: Mortgage or no Mortgage - The corrected post

CoL:

"But you can't use the mtg proceeds to directly buy Munis without losing the deduct. One should always pay the IRS what one owes, I know I do."

Sorry for the N00B question... but this is not a tax law I'm aware [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Liquid Lounge board. 2:23 AM

Re: Gold TA - where are we now

Had some deja vu when reading MDC's note to start off this thread and looked up a response which I almost wrote up again... it turns out 4 years ago we had a nice thread kicked off in a similar way. For those who have forgotten:

[more]

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 1:48 PM

Re: aapl/tech/market

"Ben, sorry i talked you into keeping LULU. we apparently ran into the Lone Pine buzzsaw.

Don't worry, I do regret not closing out when I made the thread around $63 or whatever, but I'm still up relative/absolute on the short so [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Value Hounds board. 10:36 PM

Re: A divorce with TD Ameritrade

With regard to IBKR are there any incentives (reimbursement of transfer fees, cash, free trades) for moving accounts?

None to my knowledge.

Do you have any concerns about the financial strength here? I see in 2010 they had [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Value Hounds board. 2:22 PM

Re: A divorce with TD Ameritrade

SW,

I have no small accounts, and the total number of accounts is also small so entering individual accounts has not really been a problem.
I do not need client billing, also do not need research that much although having access to [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Value Hounds board. 11:02 PM

Re: A divorce with TD Ameritrade

Stillwater,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. As a suggestion, I think you should look at IBKR for client custody... I use IBKR for RIA services (full services, unified login, block trading, etc). No RIA minimum.

I was pushed out [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 6:11 AM

Re: Place Your Bets

I think off the $100 base, we are looking at a slight moderation of growth / margins / ROE going forward. So maybe low single digit growth.

I'll stake out $115 for average and <$145 for my 75% confidence #.

Thanks for the [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 10:06 AM

Re: Soap Opera at Tessera

GC,

RE: NICK -

"Ben, i assume you are a happy camper and any thoughts?"

No big thoughts. I'm still holding. Curious who it may be (CACC or another player that would "optimize" their capital [more]

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BenHacker replied to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 11:14 PM

Re: Lulu

Thanks for sharing guys. I'll be holding.

I'm generally lightening my exposure to the market overall here given the news flow so I'll keep my LULU short and I would tend to think as a value guy I will likely be early to exit on a short so my [more]

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BenHacker posted to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 2:26 AM

Lulu

Curious to those following this still, and have any thoughts.

I made it a small position for clients last fall (~$75, about 0.5-0.75% of AUM - my personal basis is low $60's as I shorted prior to my clients due to account restrictions). My [more]

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BenHacker posted to the Deranged Monkey Criticism board. 2:35 AM

Macro Tourist Rambling - Cyprus

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-16/cyprus-says-deposit...

Snips:

The Cypriot government decided earlier [more]