|
I don't know if the readers at Forbes appreciated the value of the recommendations
in the article last week, but they would have done rather well if they followed
up on what they read. From the Going
Short article.
"You're going to hear the word insolvent a lot," he says. Middleton has
company in profiting by shorting financial stocks lately. But few shorts
have been as vocal, or as prescient, as the Howard University graduate and
self-taught stock-picker. Middleton, 41, started his BoomBustBlog in September
2007 and four months later declared Bear Stearns to be "in a fight for its
life" at a time the investment bank's shares were trading above $90. On April
1 of last year he ridiculed regulators for blaming Lehman's problems on rumor-mongering
short-sellers.
"I can solve this mystery," Middleton wrote with typical braggadocio. "The
source of the rumors is Lehman's balance sheet."
Middleton says his Web site, www.reggiemiddleton.com, has 3,500 subscribers,
including several hundred who pay up to $2,500 a year for access to more
detailed financial reports. In the case of Alexander's, he used a video camera
to record how empty its Brooklyn malls were.
Middleton's site combines self-promotion with meticulous financial analysis
that is often delivered with a whiff of bathroom humor (a list of overpriced
banking stocks last year went out as the "Doo-Doo 32")."
This is what I gave them to publish (a mere sampling of what is currently
online for subscribers):
| Middleton's Short Picks |
Ticker |
Price* |
Reason
To Short |
Price
as of
3/6/2009 |
Percent Change |
Return if subscribed to Reggie |
$50,000 evenly invested in short margin account would yield (for the
one week after the Forbes article |
$50,000 invested in the Barclay's hedge fund index as of last month
would have yielded |
| Wynn Resorts |
WYNN |
$ 20.95 |
Shrinking margins; 50%
premium to discounted cash flow |
$ 15.40 |
(26.49)% |
50% |
$ 15,033.41 |
|
| Alexander's |
ALX |
$ 140.40 |
Problems with commercial real estate holdings |
$ 137.82 |
(1.84)% |
3% |
$ 10,349.15 |
|
| Markel |
MKL |
$ 265.81 |
Financial investments to deterioriate; selling at premium to rivals |
$ 225.21 |
(15.27)% |
29% |
$ 12,902.07 |
|
| Ralcorp Holdings |
RAH |
$ 60.60 |
Cereal, packaged good maker faces margin pressure |
$ 54.85 |
(9.49)% |
18% |
$ 11,802.81 |
|
| Sears Holdings |
SHLD |
$ 36.76 |
Recession to hurt earnings, revenues |
$ 35.53 |
(3.35)% |
6% |
$ 10,635.75 |
|
| |
Total |
$ 60,723.18 |
$ 47,000 |
| *Prices as of Feb. 27 close. |
21% |
-6% |
| Come see me at BoomBustBlog.com |
This doesn't included the veritable implosion that is to occur in the subject
of the latest REIT report, or the potential fraud to be uncovered in the consumer
retail sector report, or the stuff that I have backpiled struggling to get
out.
Let this serve as a notice to the MSM (the mainstream media) in general. There's
a new sherrif in town, and he doesn't look, sound, perform nor act like the
conventional MSM favorites, ex. Cramer. I am actually trying to make money!
You people are really going to get your money's worth this month. I will be
holding an institutional conference call for the month of March - potentially
within a week. There may be a strategy issue to share.
To all, come meet, greet and chat with me at the Algonquin Hotel in NYC.
Register and RSVP here, it's free: BoomBustBlog
Networking - Trading Reggie's Research
For those who are interested, more on the MSM and why they should align themselves
with high quality blogs - the transformation of the MSM:
A
change is gonna' come Monday, 08 December 2008
Continuing
the conversation of the future of main stream media... Tuesday, 09
December 2008
The
Future of Main Stream Media, pt 3 Saturday, 13 December 2008
Sometime,
to grow, you have to stick to your Core Compentencies!
|
Reggie
Middleton
Reggie Middleton, LLC
Perpetual Interests, LLCTM
http://boombustblog.com/
Who am I?
Well, I fancy myself the personification of the free thinking
maverick, the ultimate non-conformist as it applies to investment and analysis.
I am definitively outside the box - not your typical or stereotypical Wall
Street investor. I work out of my home, not a Manhattan office. I build my
own technology and perform my own research - in lieu of buying it or following
the crowd. I create and follow my own macro strategies and am by definition,
a contrarian to the nth degree.
Since I use my research as a tool for my own investing
to actually put food on my table, I can stand behind it as doing what it is
supposed too - educate, illustrate and elucidate. I do not sell advice, I am
not a reporter hence do not sell stories, and I do not sell research. I am
an entrepreneur who exists just outside of mainstream corporate America and
Wall Street. This allows me freedom to do things that many can not. For instance,
I pride myself on developing some of the highest quality research available,
regardless of price. No conflicts of interest, no corporate politics, no special
favors. Just the hard truth as I have found it - and believe me, my team and
I do find it! I welcome any and all to peruse my blog, use my custom hacked
collaborative social tools, read the articles, download the files, and make
a critical comparison of the opinion referencing the situation at hand and
the time stamp on the blog post to the reality both at the time of the post
and the present. Hopefully, you will be as impressed with the Boom Bust as
I am and our constituency.
I pay for significant information and data, and am well
aware of the value of quality research. I find most currently available research
lacking, in both quality and quantity. The reason why I had to create my own
research staff was due to my dissatisfaction with what was currently available
- to both individuals and institutions.
So here I am, creating my own research for my own investment
activity. What really sets my actions apart is that I offer much of what I
produce to the public without charge - free to distribute and redistribute,
as long as it is left unaltered and full attribution is given to the author
and owner. Why would I do such a thing when others easily charge 5 and 6 digits
annually for what some may consider a lesser product? It is akin to open
source analysis! My ideas and implementations are actually improved and
fine tuned when bounced off of the collective intellect of the many, in lieu
of that of the few - no matter how smart those few may believe themselves to
be.
Very recently, I have started charging for the forensics
portion of my work, which has freed up the resources to develop the site to
deliver even more research for free, particularly on the global macro and opinion
front. This move has allowed me to serve an more diverse constituency, which
now includes the institutional consumer (ie., investment turned consumer banks,
hedge funds, pensions, etc,) as well as the newbie individual investor who
is just getting started - basically the two polar opposites of the investing
spectrum. I am proud to announce major banks as paying clients, and brand new
investors who take my book recommendations and opinions on true wealth and
success to heart.
So, this is how I use my background and knowledge in new
media, distributed computing, risk management, insurance, financial engineering,
real estate, corporate valuation and financial analysis to pursue, analyze
and capitalize on global macroeconomic opportunities. I have included a more
in depth bio at the bottom of the page for those who really, really need to
know more about me.
Visit his blog Boom
Bust Blog.
Copyright © 2007-2009 Reggie Middleton
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