what little moron thinks fast eddy is god ? give me a break ! so what the guy had money ,had an idea and a brain and it worked. doesn't anybody else have a brain? i know i do . bgp
Exactly. Eddie may be worth $4bln but in actual reality he's just another idiot that got lucky. Any monkey could reproduce his track record of ~30% annualized net of fees since 1990. (http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/03/news/companies/investorsguide_lampert_stockpicking/index.htm)
Lampert has got to be smart enough to make the oodles of money he has, but with Citi, the question is how low does the sinkhole go? Is it even fully disclosed yet? Maybe not since the cascade effect can make pricing the bottoms of these CDO's elusive. So what is/can Lampert do about that? If nothing, then he just has to sit and wait it out like any other long-term investor. If he wants to get active and try to split Citi up, thinking he can get it repriced better in pieces, then he should get cracking.
Lampart started out as a credit derivatives and arbitrage trader in the 80's and he's been using the cashflow from Sears Holdings to speculate in the CDO markets. I haven't seen any profit warnings from Sears so it's likely that Lampart managed to be on the right side of the market.
I oucld be wrong but I never had the impression Sears was in the retail business, I thought they were in the credit business.
I think the significance of EL loading up the boat is not who is loading up the boat - rather, that someone with major money behind them is doing so. I remember when Prince Aliweed backed up the truck on Citi when everyone thought they were going under the first time around. When enough people with enough big money have an interest, then its time to pay attention. Sure, there is most likely more downside to this stock price in the near future. But I think we are going to see a window of opportunity soon to buy this for a long-term investment. Aliweed is NOT going to sit by and watch it go under, and EL may alone cause a bottom in this stock. Citi is not going away, the question is will they be sold, turned around, or farfetched, LBO'd. Say what you want about the Hedge guys, they control vast amounts of money.....and to quote Wall Street: "He's in and out for a buck, and he don't take prisoners"
Oh, I forgot to mention the Goldman "SELL MORTIMER, SELLLLLLLLLLL" that just came out - this speaks for itself, and could be viewed as a contrarian indicator.
Also Lampert and the Prince are not daytrading. If they loaded up they are looking out a year or two and will make a nice killing if the stock finds its legs in the next few months.
Right OC, the only question is, how much heat does one take for entry into Citi as a long-term hold. I think the GS "SELLLLLLLLL" may be the first contrarian sign for a long-term buy. Newswise, we have to see how the stock reacts to each "CDO discovery" as it is announced - the CDO part may already be priced into the stock.