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Unemployment Jumps to 7.4 Percent in December. Retail, Publishing, Construction Off Sharply
Reply to #4 - Not really true. They do not have the influx anymore. All of the population growth is from illegals and newborns. Uhaul reported the amount of people moving out of the San Diego area was super high. Local paper here said more people moved here from CA than went to CA. San Diego is like dating a beautiful woman who has nothing on the inside value wise.— January 26, 2009 9:10 p.m.
Brandes Investment Partners Still Underperforming Sharply, Losing Clients
The term "Ponzi scheme" is a widely known description of any scam that pays early investors returns from the investments of later investors. This is taken courtesy of wikipedia. This is EXACTLY what happened here during the heyday. BUT, it was not intentional and you could make a case that most hedge funds act like this.— January 26, 2009 2:31 p.m.
Brandes Investment Partners Still Underperforming Sharply, Losing Clients
Reply to #30 - Totally agree EXCEPT when value investing was done on an International scale on thinly traded stocks. Their growth was so huge that all that new money kept chasing the same stocks. Once they were forced off of this treadmill and went to more large cap stocks, their performance plunged. Anyways, it will be interesting to see what their performance is like going forward. This margin of safety thing is irksome since so many stocks went down 90% or more. How is that a margin of safety? Thanks COLT— January 26, 2009 10:14 a.m.
Unemployment Jumps to 7.4 Percent in December. Retail, Publishing, Construction Off Sharply
Great place to visit, tough place to live. People underestimate the bad air there, too. It doesn't rain for 6 months April thru October so the marine layer snags the same bad air day in day out.— January 26, 2009 10:08 a.m.
Brandes Investment Partners Still Underperforming Sharply, Losing Clients
Reply to #28 - So based on that, it is hard to conclude that the value approach has really worked. This past year has wiped out their track record. If you were, in fact, long term, you now have been crushed. I don't know what the right approach is...we are in times that you cannot compare to anything. I am beginning to think this whole stock market is more of a scam than a great place to invest. Peace COLT— January 26, 2009 8:45 a.m.
Unemployment Jumps to 7.4 Percent in December. Retail, Publishing, Construction Off Sharply
San Diego has always been an Employer's market whereby employers don't treat employees very well and have the attitude if you don't like it, we have a zillion resumes on file. That is partly why it is so transient. People move there expecting it to be such a fun place, like on vacation, but soon realize how cold and cutthroat it is. When I lived there it felt like the loneliest place at times. I am happy to be back in the Midwest where people talk to you and get to know you. PEACE COLT— January 25, 2009 8:38 p.m.
Brandes Investment Partners Still Underperforming Sharply, Losing Clients
Reply to #26 - Don, without realizing it, the later investors were paying for the people first in as they were bidding up their stock holdings. If you have 25 relatively illiquid stocks in your portfolio and a whole bunch of new investors keep pouring in buying those same stocks, don't you think it runs them up? In their early days, they bought mostly, thinly traded international stocks. Couple that with a batch of new money that keeps coming in and if you were first in, your stocks kept getting saturated with fresh money. Thus, they go up and you beat the indexes. This has nothing to do with being a great stock picker. Why do you think they disallow front running? Wouldn't you love to own a basket of stocks knowing that over the next few years, tons of investors would be pouring money into them? Once this ends though, the ones that came late get stampeded. This was a ponzi, but I don't think it was intentional. It became a ponzi without them even knowing it, I would think. Basically, the late investors by pouring money into the front investors stocks DID pay off those investors by running up their holdings. I am shocked given a 75% decline over 6 quarters that they can still have anyone wanting to pay Mercedes type fees for Kia performance. Peace COLT— January 25, 2009 1:27 p.m.
Brandes Investment Partners Still Underperforming Sharply, Losing Clients
Reply to #23 and #24 To #23 - You obviously must see my point on how being the first in with tons of fresh money coming in behind you could prop up your illiquid stocks and thus, give you a huge return as a flood of money props up your holdings? Problem is guys like me that came in late to this pyramid and took a bath as this all came crashing down. Anyone that doesn't see this doesn't understand stocks and liquidity. To #24 - Don, US VALUE was down 55% in 2008 and another 20-something % in the last 6 months of 2007. Do you realize the financial damage done here? They had closed their other funds so poor saps were forced into the US product and many had a substantial sum of money invested only to see it explode 75-80% in a year and a half. I think this turned into a Ponzi without even realizing it. Please tell me an argument against my thesis? Peace COLT— January 24, 2009 9:55 p.m.
Brandes Investment Partners Still Underperforming Sharply, Losing Clients
New article on Brandes' website admitting that they blew it. I am impressed and think this gives them more credibility. They mentioned that they underestimated the severity of the housing downturn and the Government intervention risks. Anyways, that article is a move in the right direction. Up to this point, their blatant babbling about margins of safety and 3-5 year time horizons was driving me mad because so many of my holdings went to zero or pennies. I respect someone more if they admit their mistakes and maybe learned from it. COLT— January 23, 2009 11:27 p.m.
Brandes Investment Partners Still Underperforming Sharply, Losing Clients
burwell - Agreed. Where is the margin of safety? Down 90%, down 100%? This is a joke if you preach margin of safety. You nailed it with your speculation comment. Peace COLT— January 23, 2009 6:30 a.m.