January 17, 2012 – Smarter Investing

PE firms are in the spotlight recently due to Mitt Romney's ascendance as the leader in the Republican primaries. Here's how they work.

Outlook

How private equity firms work

Hoping to keep my strong gains going through 2012

This year, I plan on slightly adjusting my sell side algorithm.

Strategies

Hoping to keep my strong gains going through 2012

Two sleeper financial stocks: Bank of America and Tower Group

2011 was a particularly tough year for the financial services sector, but there remains significant value in individual names and in the regional banks.

Strategies

Two sleeper financial stocks: Bank of America and Tower Group

My goal is to beat the S&P 500 by at least five percentage points on an annualized basis over the coming five years.

Strategies

Introducing my All Cap Value model

Our foremost belief is that over time stock price follows earnings growth.

Strategies

3 ways to succeed in picking stocks

Overweighting industrials, energy, and commodity stocks

The economy should slog ahead in 2012, slow but gaining slightly.

Strategies

Overweighting industrials, energy, and commodity stocks

Our 2012 strategy: Yield, stability and staying nimble

Owning MREITs will always require nimble management by the investor, and that’s our charge as a portfolio manager.

Strategies

Our 2012 strategy: Yield, stability and staying nimble

We need to see positive momentum in economic reports for both consumer and business spending.

Strategies

What we’re looking for in 2012

It’s a challenging environment for Workout opportunities

The spread on risk arbitrage opportunities seemed to shrink over 2011, and tender offer opportunities became scarce.

Strategies

It’s a challenging environment for Workout opportunities

Dealing with volatility in my Buy & Hold model

I will try to reduce the portfolio turnover and trading frequency in this model in 2012 by staying focused on longer-term performance.

Strategies