Billionaire Joe Lewis still long BSC @ 110?

Discussion in 'Stocks' started by turkeyneck, Mar 11, 2008.

  1. Seeking alpha is pretty much useless anyway
     
    #11     Mar 11, 2008
  2. Bear Stearns Investor Lewis May Increase His Stake (Update2)

    By Yalman Onaran

    March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph Lewis, the second-largest shareholder in Bear Stearns Cos., may add to his holdings after the stock fell on speculation the company lacks sufficient access to capital, a person close to him said.

    Lewis, a 71-year-old billionaire who began building his Bear Stearns stake in September, views the investment as long-term and isn't bothered by the falling share price, the person said, declining to be identified because Lewis doesn't make public statements about his holdings.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9aawiNihxCk&refer=home
     
    #12     Mar 11, 2008
  3. mokwit

    mokwit

    About as credible as the "Buffet is buying" rumour. Probably originated with the same character from Alice in Wonderland you know, the one sitting on a mushroom smoking a hookah............................

    Here he is answering a Journalists questions on accounting policy.

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    #13     Mar 12, 2008
  4. Joe lewis should stick to writing books
     
    #14     Mar 12, 2008
  5. capmac

    capmac

    Is he still alive ?

    :p
     
    #15     Mar 14, 2008
  6. Exactly.

    I find that these guys are a lot more credible than the likes of JIM ROGERS who has never, ever had a losing trade.

    In my opinion, Rogers is full of BS.
     
    #16     Mar 14, 2008
  7. just21

    just21

    The Bloomberg tv ticker said Boone Pickens hedge fund was down 14% in february. Proably a story on the Bloomberg website.
     
    #17     Mar 14, 2008
  8. huh

    huh

    I'm curious what kind of a position Joe Lewis put on Bear. CNBC is reporting he was long the stock via short puts which means he could be down as much as $800 mil....but thats assuming a naked short put which would be downright foolish. I don't think a billionaire investor would do this. At worst he must have done a wide vertical credit spread (i.e. go short on puts at a high strike around 90-100 to collect a lot of premium and then went long a lower put strike that was selling for maybe .05 as protection which would mean his loss is not nearly as bad as they are speculating. Wonder what the real position is....guess we'll never know.
     
    #18     Mar 14, 2008

  9. I agree. I've probably read the PJT, Rich Dennis, Bill Eckhardt :) and Kovner interviews in Schwager's books a dozen or more times. I've read Roger's sermon once. That was once too many times.......
     
    #19     Mar 14, 2008
  10. just21

    just21

    Pickens's BP Capital Energy Fund Fell 14% This Year (Update4)

    By Margot Habiby

    March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor Boone Pickens's BP Capital Energy Equity Fund fell 14 percent in the first two months of the year amid soaring prices for natural gas and crude oil.

    BP Capital spokesman Jay Rosser, who said in an e-mail that the fund dropped, declined to comment on the hedge fund's specific market positions and holdings.

    Pickens, the founder and chairman of Dallas-based BP Capital LLC, told CNBC on Feb. 21 that he was short on both crude oil and natural gas. He didn't provide additional detail on his positions. A short is a bet that prices will decline.

    ``He's just a little premature, maybe,'' said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. ``I think he's right. The market is soaring to unprecedented heights on wings of whimsy.''

    Crude oil futures touched a record for a fifth day today, climbing above $109 a barrel in New York, after the weak dollar prompted traders to invest in commodities. Natural gas declined after touching the highest level in almost two years.

    ``Oil is going to back off here in the second quarter,'' Pickens said in the CNBC interview last month. ``It'll be back above $100 in the second half.''

    About 90 percent of the Energy Equity Fund's assets are in energy-company stocks, with the remaining 10 percent in oil and gas commodities, according to Bloomberg data. Natural gas futures jumped 25 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange through February, as crude oil climbed 6.1 percent.

    Focus on Stocks

    ``Boone Pickens is not good at calling the long-term market, but he's got a pretty good head for the short-term,'' Lynch said, citing Pickens's past successes, including hedging production at his Mesa Petroleum in the mid-1980s before prices collapsed and taking a short position on natural gas after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

    Pickens started the BP Capital Energy Commodity Fund in 1997 to track energy markets and the Energy Equity Fund in 2001 to concentrate on stocks. Rosser didn't immediately respond to a question about the commodity fund's performance, though he said it's the smaller of the funds.

    The Standard & Poor's 500 Energy Index fell 5 percent in the first two months of the year.

    ``Energy stocks took a beating in January and were down 10.9 percent,'' said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst with Standard & Poor's. ``In February, they rebounded 6.66 percent, but that basically left them nicely in the red through February.''

    Fund Holdings

    BP Capital's biggest equity holdings as of the end of last year were in Suncor Energy Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp., according to a regulatory filing. Suncor's shares lost 5.1 percent through February, and Exxon Mobil dropped 7.1 percent. Occidental rose 0.5 percent.

    Suncor shares have fallen amid increases in the cost of processing heavy oil and operating difficulties, said Tina Vital, an analyst at S&P in New York.
     
    #20     Mar 14, 2008