Search found 25 matches

by pustertahler
19 Sep 2008 12:54
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: What is liquidity injection?
Replies: 5
Views: 2533

Thanks,

I do not know exactly how much liquidity the FED has in its balance sheet, but 100 to the market today, 85 to AIG, 100 another day ... the funds will end sooner or later.
It seems to me that it will be sooner, unless she starts printing a lot, and this will be another problem to be solved.

Let's hope

Regards
Mike
by pustertahler
19 Sep 2008 12:27
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: What is liquidity injection?
Replies: 5
Views: 2533

What is liquidity injection?

Hi,
I'm sorry if this has already been asked, but I haven's seen it.

I do not understand the meaning of "FED injecting liquidity in the market"

Does the FED actually print money and then give it to, say, AIG at an interest? Does the Government issue new debt? Or is the FED just putting in the market funds she already has in her balance sheet?

What will be the outcome of injecting liquidity? new inflation? Will AIG, or all the others, have to give this liquidity back to the FED?

I've heard that AIG has been financed by the FED at Libor + 8%. I do not understand, it seems to me very dangerous and just a matter of posticipate the problem hoping that things get better.

Thanks for answering and regards,
Mike
by pustertahler
27 Mar 2007 15:34
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: ptf diversification and taxes
Replies: 5
Views: 1847

Actually Pustertahl is Sudtirol, northern part of Italy right in the middle of the Alps.

Tax on capital gains in Italy is 12.5% no matter how long you've been holding the stock and will be rised to 20% from next june in order to match european average standards.
I think investing is more a psycological thing: you spend a lot of time studying the best way to invest, the best strategies to control risk, to catch higher returns and then ... then you must take a decision.

My compliment to this forum, one of the best I've found so far on investing

Mike
by pustertahler
27 Mar 2007 12:45
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: ptf diversification and taxes
Replies: 5
Views: 1847

ptf diversification and taxes

Hi,
I am looking for some encouragement:

I know I shouldn't, but I have 85% of my portfolio in 1 stock!
It's a stock I inherited 11 years ago and never watched at since then. :shock:

It quoted 7€ when I got it and now it is 24€ (some 12% a year compound).

I love that stock and can not decide to sell it, pay a bounch of taxes and diversify ...

But I should, eh?
Mike
by pustertahler
19 Oct 2006 10:49
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Derivatives
Replies: 78
Views: 9969

Derivatives

I was reading about the merger between CBOT and CME and it came to my attention that the total volume of financial derivatives around the world is some 282,000 billion $.

Periodically the extraordinary amount of financial instruments on the market is a source of anxiety. To me at least.

Is it a real source of anxiety or just a normal evolution of markets?

Best regards,
Mike
by pustertahler
05 May 2006 12:19
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Whole Foods (Symbol-WFMI)
Replies: 12
Views: 1643

Whole Foods (Symbol-WFMI)

I am italian, but because of my business I am often in the US dealing with supermarkets, club stores and so forth.

It appears to me that one of the best retailers in the US, for its business model, is Whole Foods. I sow WFMI growing during the years in terms of stores and of range of products, always mainteining excellent levels of relationship with suppliers and customers.
More, I believe they will continue this way and more customers will appreciate their service in the future.

Financials look good and stock price looks steadily increasing.
I have done some homework on WFMI and it sounds good, though price is at its highest in years.

Does anyone have any opinion on this company?

Regards,
Mike
by pustertahler
14 Dec 2005 12:36
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Doral Financial (Symbol-DRL)
Replies: 19
Views: 3207

DRL

Hi,

I had some DRL: bought at the beginning of 2003 and sold after the big drop at the beginning of this year with a little % gain (but it was a nice almost 100%)

It seems to me that the price has stop falling and now the stock can be somewhat cheap, as the company, though had problems and is restating its statements, is still a primary bank in Puerto Rico and its business seems solid ... at least I feel it is solid on the base of the past 10 years numbers.

Does anyone think this stock can be a good investment, or at least a good bet?
I made the same question some 4 months ago ... now it seems that short term speculation left this stock.

Regards,
Mike
by pustertahler
05 Nov 2005 17:07
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: DRIPs/SIPs/Synthetic DRIPs
Replies: 353
Views: 71838

Thanks for the informations

regards,
Mike
by pustertahler
04 Nov 2005 16:11
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: DRIPs/SIPs/Synthetic DRIPs
Replies: 353
Views: 71838

Can a foreigner invest in US DriPs?

Hallo,

I live in Italy and would invest in some DriPs in the US. Does anybody know if I can?

Thanks,
Mike
by pustertahler
22 Sep 2005 05:52
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Time to lock-in profits?
Replies: 24
Views: 3001

We're heavily into oil and gas

I would diversify and this may be a good moment if you had huge profits from your oil shares (of course in one year may be even better ...)
Me and Mrs. Moe have been quite lucky in the market for the last 2.5 years, but I'm currently getting a bit nervous
... and diversifying depends on your age: if you are near retirement, it is not convenient to hold such a position in shares, and in one single sector.
Should you be yunger, Diversify, Dividends, Discipline (http://www.shakesprimer.com/)
I've never dealt with options before
Bravo! Unless you really know financial instruments and market behaviour leave options, short selling, derivatives and similar to pros


Mike
by pustertahler
30 Aug 2005 16:25
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Price gouging
Replies: 70
Views: 7216

is there a point at which a large price increase in the face of a natural disaster can be considered gouging and be justly condemned?
And will we punish oil traders to let oil price jump to 70.80$/bl from 67 on news related to Katrina? :D

Mike
by pustertahler
26 Aug 2005 16:50
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Risk = ??
Replies: 491
Views: 108790

I accept the definition that risk = standard deviation, just becouse so far std dv is the best fit to what risk is in finance: the possiblity that we have less than the amount of money we need exactly when we need it. If we agree this is a good definition of risk, then a risk measure should be a function of too many variables: - the amount of money we have: if we have much more than needed, a high loss, though we don't like it, will be less dramatic - time: a 20% drop of my portfolio when I'm 40 years old is different from when I'm 80 (therefore the 110 - age = stock% formula) - semivariace: down is bad, up is good - outliers: std dev tends to forget big unusual returns and we know that if you're out of the market in those 2 or 3 big days i...
by pustertahler
26 Aug 2005 09:52
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: portfolio allocation
Replies: 62
Views: 9180

While equities intrinsically have a higher return than bonds, mixing in a few bonds produces a higher return than a 100% equities portfolio From Gummy's tutorial (revised): If S = Mean annual Stock return B = Mean Annual Bond return P = Std deviation for Stock Q = Std deviation for Bond r = Correlation x = fraction of PTF devoted to Stocks ... Portfolio annualized return is: [5] Annualized Return = a + bx - c x2 where a = B-Q2, b = S-B+Q2-rPQ and c = (1/2)(P2+Q2 - 2rPQ) ... and recognize (...) the equation of a PARABOLA which has a maximum ... somewhere The maximum can be anywhere, depending on S, B, Q, P, r ... Generally speaking, the more volatile the stocks, the more bonds will add marginal return to the portfolio. ... I guess ... Mike
by pustertahler
25 Aug 2005 03:14
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: portfolio allocation
Replies: 62
Views: 9180

Gummy, deus ex machina

Thanks,
Mike
by pustertahler
24 Aug 2005 13:14
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: portfolio allocation
Replies: 62
Views: 9180

Well, I'll just minimize my risk with 100% in the safer.

Risk can not be eliminated, but just minimized, so, given n different securities, there's always a minimum risk portfolio that generally is not the safer asset, but a combination of assets.

On the other hand there is a maximum return portfolio; I am not sure that the maximum return portfolio is 100% in stocks (provided stocks' return is higher than bonds').
Well ... maths tells me that, if stocks' return is higher than bonds', then 100% stocks has the higher return, but I think that the marginal return I get increasing my stocks % in the portfolio above 80% will be so small as to be insignificant.

Thanks,
Mike
by pustertahler
24 Aug 2005 03:53
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: portfolio allocation
Replies: 62
Views: 9180

Close. He's in Italy just south of the Austrian border German speaking part of Italy ... unless I do not speak german (another language wall in my life): that's my wife that's been contested by both countries for centuries During world war 1° my wife's grandfather was on Franz Josef's side, while his brother (the black ship) was on Vittorio Emanuele's. Eventually (50 years later) they spoke together again. I hope Mike's OK I'm ok: 50% of Europe is underwater, but Alps as usual protect Italy. Well I just gave a look to some books and all I could find is a quote from Berstein's "The four pillars of investing" where he writes (p. 266): Finally, given that our estimate for future stock and bond returns are so close. it makes little s...
by pustertahler
23 Aug 2005 12:23
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: portfolio allocation
Replies: 62
Views: 9180

I agree with all of you.
I'll check out where I read that a 100% (diversified) stocks portfolio has no marginal return but just higher risk than an 80-20.

Thanks
Mike
by pustertahler
23 Aug 2005 09:55
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: portfolio allocation
Replies: 62
Views: 9180

ok, I am sorry, ... my english ...

I already have an 80% stocks and 20% bonds portfolio

Now, I believe that increasing that 80% to say 85% or 90% does not carry any marginal return ...
I one was reading this in some technical paper, but do not remember where.

Next December I'll ask Santa a "Speak english in just 4 weeks" CD.

Thanks,
Mike
by pustertahler
23 Aug 2005 04:51
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: portfolio allocation
Replies: 62
Views: 9180

portfolio allocation

I once was reading somewhere that allocating more then 80% of portfolio in stocks will not improve portfolio return and therefore 80-20 is a limit for diversification between stocks/bonds.
Is it true? Does anyone know of a paper on the subject?

Thanks,
Mike
by pustertahler
06 Jul 2005 04:12
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Doral Financial (Symbol-DRL)
Replies: 19
Views: 3207

I agree that D/E = 4.55 is considered very high, though for a mortgage bank it is not really that high.
If you compare it with other banks in the industry it is actually quite low:

DRL 4,55
FRE 23,29
CFC 8,45
NLY 9,83
IMH 21,77
AHM 9,47
FBP 5,16
BPOP 6,40
SBP 5,15

Some argued that DRL's business model should adapt to a market with increasing interest rates, but DRL's shares soared all through the past 2 decades, both in increasing and decreasing interest rates.

I believe that this spring there was an overreaction to bad news and that the market is now back to a more rational view on this company, after all the short term speculators have done their work.

Regards, Mike
by pustertahler
05 Jul 2005 14:48
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Doral Financial (Symbol-DRL)
Replies: 19
Views: 3207

DRL again

It seems to me that DRL's shares can be back on track.
DRL fell from 50 to 12 early this year becouse of wrong derivatives accounting.
I believe DRL business model is still strong and this company can be a good investment with PE = 4.23 (used to be around 12) and div yeld = 4.2%.
I bought back some shares.

Does anyone have suggestions on this company?

Thanks, Mike
by pustertahler
17 May 2005 09:47
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Big ideas which affect your returns in life and investments
Replies: 4
Views: 986

25. (Aristotelis Onassis) The secret in business is to know something no one else knows
by pustertahler
26 Apr 2005 10:47
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Annualized volatility & Square-root-of-time & VAR &a
Replies: 16
Views: 2261

Another question on volatility:

If I'm long a stock, in calculating SD shouldn't I skip all positive returns and calculate it only on negative returns? I mean, positive returns are not a risk ... if I'm long.

I had some math on this and, as an example, DUK's daily SD on a 200 days period is 1,14% while for UN it is 1,04%. DUK's risk is higher than UN's.
If I skip positive returns and calculate risk only on negative returns for the same 200 days period, DUK's SD = 0,69%; UN's SD = 0,90%: UN is riskier than DUK.

Mike
PS: excuse me if this question was already made in the past!
by pustertahler
21 Apr 2005 04:39
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Doral Financial (Symbol-DRL)
Replies: 19
Views: 3207

I really can't believe what's going on with DRL: I have 12 years history on my computer and I can't understand how this I/O question is driveing DRL so down.

I promised myself to stay away from a company whenever there's a "derivatives concern" ... sad to say but I'll stay away from DRL for a while :cry:

Thanks Bylo for your kind german welcome ... actually I moved to Welsberg a couple years ago from my home town Verona (... Romeo & Juliet ...) and still have pain with this wierd language these german speaking italians talk! But as your picture shows, the place's worth the pain.
by pustertahler
19 Apr 2005 16:48
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Doral Financial (Symbol-DRL)
Replies: 19
Views: 3207

Motley Fool: "While some may feel that management's credibility was tarnished through this whole matter, I think it's important to note that not only did it do the conservative thing (eventually) but also it has an excellent track record managing this bank -- well before these IOs became any sort of issue"

MF again: "Assuming no more skeletons lurk in the closet, this is an interesting company for value-oriented investors"

Well, I agree.
I believe that DRL does not have the same skeletons Enron or Parmalat had (... I still have both in my ptf :roll: )

Mike