Ron Insana just made an interesting move in his Market Movers newsletter:
Earlier today I talked about a melt-up in the markets, which may very well be in the cards. But I also told subscribers to my "Market Movers" newsletter later in the morning that I was taking my entire portfolio to cash.
It was, admittedly, a shocking reversal to my recent stance on the markets and my views on longer-term investing. But the reason I moved to cash, as a manager of real money, as opposed to a model portfolio, centered on prudent portfolio management.
The "Market Movers" portfolio had gained roughly 47% since its inception through early this morning.
I ragged on TheStreet.com (TSCM) and Ron for what looks look a shady way of measuring performance: namely, launching an investment newsletter on June 29th that takes credit for investments made since March 13th - a date suspiciously close to the market bottom. I’m also a bit peeved at the newsletter’s disclosure section which I discussed in this post.
At the time of my ragging, Ron was just a teensy weensy bit ahead of the S&P 500 – now it looks like he’s crushing it. I HATE the fact that his performance number is based upon starting on March 13th, months before the newsletter launched, but I can’t argue with the fact that he’s starting out pretty damn hot.
And Ron might be right – it might be time to lock in gains. Futures are already turning down on profit taking, the Personal Income numbers weren’t so hot, and we have an unemployment number coming on Friday. Who the heck know how that could turn out?
I’m awfully tempted to book gains in Perfect World (PWRD), though I’ll most likely sell call options against my common stock. The implied volatility readings are a bit fat and I can take in $1.40 or so for the August $40’s – not bad at all. It might even make sense to sell something like the March 40’s which can be had for well over $6.
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My take on Ron Insana’s Market Movers Newsletter
3 comments:
I don't see any reason for admiration over what Insana has done. First it creates a huge tax burden or at least is would in my case. With that in mind it also fails to clear long term capital losses. In a word selling with unwarranted fear creates a by-product of stupid. I realize that Cramer and other who are also not top tier investors have somehow drawn the conclusion that long term investing is dead but they do so without any empirical evidence. Study after study has shown that long term investing beats the flipper.
Further, there are many remedies for hedging. If someone is cock sure that a market will implode which by itself is insane then short the market with ETFs which have triple loss protection. Sell calls on portfolio share, buy puts. I literally locked up my portfolio in 2000 with an identical short portfolio at 100% margin.
Real investors should learn to be tough all weather investors. Great investors like Ken Fisher, don't even mess with the short side. He's just that good. He knows how to wait and be patient so he merely increased his cash allocations then increases his positions when the dust settles. It is the perfect way to beat the markets. And I am not talking here about merely keeping one's head above water. I am talking about getting positions.
Many investors like myself rode down our investments in the last year. My Goldman was selling for 68 at the bottom and I was increasing my position. Dow chemical hit 7. 8 for me and I bought aggressively on margin.
Some of us were using leverage investments in March so our gains are way over Insana's. Yet here is Insana with a resume that suggests he is a money manager. I am sorry, the whole purpose of investing is not just managing this imagined risk by selling but having skills sufficient to lock in the gains without locking in the tax obligation.
As I have said if I was cock sure the markets were going to retest the bottom, I would be short and levered to take full advantage of it. I see none of this fiction by Insana a reality.
Finally to some the 'prudent investment" strategy means diversification and sending funds into treasury backed securities. It is a perfect formula to consistently lose money. Great wealth has never been build on diversity but by weighting and in some cases heavily weighting portfolios.
I for one can't stand obama. I can't stand to even look at him. He repulses me and I am shocked at a nation that would elect anyone this far out of the stream and this untalented. Of course they elected Bush twice so the public is irrational. But, I know that I lack objectivity over anything that obama and the democratic congress promote. I instinctively know it is anti-business and anti-wealth. I could get out of the markets but I choose instead to treat him as merely a factor over which I must navigate.
Ron Insana is the Guy Kawasaki of the investment world and the Keto Kalin of the entertainment world. More simply the famous for no reason club.
About 6 weeks ago Insanea sold all his stocks. He was going to look like a genius. Instead he showed exactly why his hedge fund bit the dust. This guy has no talent at all for managing money. Yet here he is talking up a storm off cramer's online rag, CNBC, and other places as if he is an investor. He is dope.
He said the reason why he sold his stocks was so he could sleep at night. What does that have to do with investing? This guy is a loser. He is the only guy on earth that proves that even a broken clock can be wrong all the time.
Now this guy is trying to sell newsletters and books. On what? Surely not on investing. How about being famous for no reason?
This is a followup on the great Ron Insana... loser and charter member of the Famous for no reason club. FFNRC. So he has this gigantic preminition and sells off to cash in August. It is now March and the markets are still on a tear. His "strategy" was... in a word... utterly without purpose. Yet this "guru" still poses as a money manager.
Why do I keep coming back to post about this fraud? Because he is making a living off his sham bullshtick.
"Ron Insana's Doing it and Doing It and Doing it Well"
What the heck is he doing well... shamming the public? Because as an investor he isn't cutting it. He is a loser.
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