Lehman & Max Pain
April 15, 2008
The month of April has been quite intense for Lehman Brothers. The flood of bad news both from the financial and housing sectors has caused Lehman stock to fluctuate wildly - sometimes as much as 10% or more per day. With April options expiring on Friday, it is my belief that we will see the stock approach it’s max pain price - which is between $45 and $50 per share. Read more »
A Tally of Bank and IBank Write Downs
April 12, 2008
The following is a list of write-downs from major banking and investment banking institutions. The numbers are current and cover write-downs from November, 2007. The write-downs include the following: sub prime mortgage loans, leveraged loan commitments and other assets. Read more »
Credit Crunch Resolution: A Catch-22
April 9, 2008
There is a lot of talk about how the credit crunch currently gripping the world economy can be resolved. The most popular view, by far, is that this cannot happen until the housing market begins to stabilize. Unfortunately we find ourselves in a “catch-22.” Read more »
Stocks Ben Graham Would Like: NTE, GKK, MEI
April 8, 2008
Benjamin Graham is widely regarded to be the founder of modern value investing. His greatest student, Warren Buffett, attributes much of his success to Graham’s teachings. Though Graham believed that much research is necessary and that no stock screening methodology is perfect, he did give us some guidelines on how to perform initial screening techniques to limit the number of investments that should be researched further. Read more »
Mortgage Mess: The Blame Game
April 7, 2008
Not surprisingly, no one has taken any credit for the current mess we find ourselves in. It’s quite apparent that we’re in a recession, as Fed Chief Ben Bernanke implied last week at his congressional testimony. What isn’t apparent, at least in the eyes of those who oversee the economy, is who’s to blame. Read more »