11/6/76-4/22/04
A big bonus might make you a legend
But it won’t make you a hero
Give back
And we might reconsider
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How about $40 for 40?
Or better yet buy a jersey
and be the best dressed guy on your trading desk
9/11 spurred Tillman to action. Today its Wall Street’s turn to step up.
Patrick Daniel Tillman owns this house for 24 hours.
Find time to honor him.
And the others.
See you tomorrow.
Win One For the Gipper
A legend of college football will be watching tomorrow’s game from the Big House in the Sky.
Michigan coaching legend Bo Schembechler has died after collapsing Friday morning, Detroit-area television station WXYZ reported. He was 77.
Schembechler collapsed at WXYZ’s studios in Southfield as he prepared to tape the “Big Ten Ticket” show and was taken to Providence Hospital, the ABC affiliate said. Story
Rest in Peace, Bo.
Maize and Blue by a touchdown…
Nails Hammered
Several weeks ago we profiled television talking head and ex-major league baseball player Lenny “Nails” Dykstra. Lenny’s financial interests are as varied as they come...and he has undoubtly logged a series of 90 hour work weeks since keeping on top of his empire.
Lenny still talks a good game of trash...and the stock picks he offered up on a Saturday episode of Fox News Channel’s “Bulls and Bears” have chalked up reasonable gains in the interim...it was “game on” against Nails in a spirited stock picking contest.
Dykstra Pix 10/20/06
Lenny’s mini-portfolio is heavy on energy exposure and holds bigger-cap names than our sketchy speculative issues. Quite frankly his stocks bore us to tears. He is holding his own against the indices, although certainly lacking beta if there is an acceleration of momentum in this one-way tape.
Field of Schemes
The UTC faithful know how we feel about stadium naming rights partnerships…
Apparently we are not the only ones dubious about the merits of these transactions...the deal announced today between Citigroup and The New York Mets should give bitter Mets fans an excellent chance to make some money on the short side...just kidding
But we can’t help but wonder…
Will Jamie Dimon ever show his face at the Mets new Digs?
Life in the Fast Lane
Getting out of Gotham every now and again keeps us sane. We love to fly into SkyHarbor in November, work on our tan and take in the local sights.
Which in Scottsdale of course means garish plastic surgery, porsche carrera convertibles and “For Sale” signs on nearly 30% of the houses we drive by.
But our holiday in the Sonoran Desert has been anything but relaxing. Its not the old folks and their geriatric groupies, driving 45 mph in the left lane of the 101 freeway, who are annoying us. Or the Budweiser swilling Nascar fans in town for this weekend’s race who weave in and out of traffic at 110 mph.
Its the waiters at the local watering holes.
Dutch Trick or Treat
Placido Polanco of the Detroit Tigers turned in a memorable effort in an unmemorable World Series. Not for what he accomplished though. For stinking up the joint.
0 for 17
ING Investment Management’s fundamental equity team might be the Placido Polanco of the buyside. They stink too.
ING’s Dutch parent has done an admirable job establishing a beachhead in the U.S. through its ubiquitous ING Direct online bank and branding via a massive advertising budget that includes this week’s NYC marathon. Deep pockets indeed.
But ING Funds domestic offerings are a bit uneven. The ING Partners Fund family has assembled an all-star roster of sub-advisory relationships. The term “best of breed” usually provokes the involuntary gag reflex in us, but in this case it might be deserved. These outside managers are for the most part legit.
While ING’s quantitative equity products also seem to pass muster despite recent personnel turnover and client defections, ING’s NYC-based fundamental equity team seem to be giving their fund’s investors more of a trick than a treat.
After a spate of acquisitions and the subsequent integration efforts that combined the investment professionals of the Pilgrim Funds, Furman Selz and Aetna among others, you are left with what unhappy investors could only describe as a work in progress. Although ING’s newly-arrived small cap team are getting the job done, the larger-cap offerings that constitute the bulk of the assets run by this motley-NYC based-crue are posting bottom quartile year-to-date numbers with no turnaround in sight.
Lenny Dykstra….Stockpicking Savant?
This is the first in our new series: Talking Heads
Lenny Dykstra was a one-man wrecking crew when he played for the Mets and Phillies back in the day. Brash and outspoken, he was the Charlie Hustle of his generation. He has parlayed his baseball earnings into a http://www.nj.com/mets/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1160455584216100.xml&coll=1">mini empire that includes car washes, quick lube outlets and other related business ventures. All in all, we would have to say that he has done well for himself despite some missteps along the way and lingering suspicions that he still parties too much.
Indeed, we think some of his television appearances have been quite bizarre as he adjusts to a different type of media glare. Of late, Lenny has frequently been quoted in the media advocating a deep-in the-money call strategy and has also been quoted on the record boasting of a near-perfect run of stock picks…
Dykstra says more than 90 percent of his stock picks are money-makers. And if you don’t believe it, he says with that familiar edge, ”go ahead, dude, look it up.”
Still, he can’t be any worse than some of those so called professionals CNBC trots out day after day, and we are willing to give him a shot at attaining guru status here at UTC. A reasonably lucid Dykstra was on Fox News Channel’s “Bulls and Bears” this past weekend (10/21/06) sharing his investment prowess with, well, anyone who will listen. His picks included:
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)
Yahoo (YHOO)
Anadarko Petroleum (APC)
Unit Corp (UNT)
Diageo PLC (DEO)
Despite our skepticism regarding ex-baseball players and ex-wrestlers who dispense financial advice to the unwashed masses, we are trying to have an open mind. And we have to be honest. We love Lenny Dykstra. We admired his grit during his playing days and now his attempts to create jobs and wealth since he retired from the game. We are just not convinced he is a stock savant with a 90% success rate, although he is probably better than Joe Battapaglia.
We also love a good scrap, and have an ego every bit as bloated as Lenny’s face and waistline. Thus we think a little wager is in order. We will submit five picks, including the high flying recent IPO Acme Packet (APKT)
and the following:
Express Scripts Inc.(ESRX)
Global Payments(GPN)
DeVry Inc. (DV)
Exlservice Holdings (EXLS)
The two portfolios will be tracked and we will update you periodically on the progress, or lack thereof. The circus will end on December 31st, 2006 and a winner declared.
Too, in honor of Lenny’s five flea ridden dog picks, we will make a modest donation to the North Shore Animal League at the contests end....and if we beat Lenny we will ask him to match our donation.
Game On, Nails
