Comments on: Bears Lose Conviction in Face of Cheap Stocks

By: Andy Tabbo

Andy Tabbo — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:15:56 +0000

That’s the greatest sell article I’ve seen in awhile.

By: cpwestcoast

cpwestcoast — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:11:29 +0000

ben & todd above nailed it – hedge fund assets have been crushed, and hedge fund exposure is ridiculously low compared to past year/6 months, hedge funds are making smaller bets, and getting chased out of them quicker, with terrible perf in 08 the only way to stay in the game is put up PNL in 09/dont get blown up again, smaller bets w a shorter leash accomplishes that, re short interest down ticking that is the answer, especially where no one wants to be caught tremendously net short in a massive bear mkt rally and get your face ripped off and close down, cant short without finding a long hedge, no longs to hedge with means no exposure, no trick to it – feel free to look around for others/make up others

By: ben22

ben22 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:58:24 +0000

Mannwich,

I totally agree, that would be just a short term way to mark assets up to what they aren’t really worth, that said, it would still ignite a pretty strong rally IMO, would just be an opportunity to trade is all, this market is full of them.

I picked up some stuff very late today that I’ll most likely sell within the next 2-3 weeks, either at a nice profit or I’ll just get stopped out.

Not sure if you read the mr. mortgage thing in the cafe yesterday, it was real long, but he went over mtm in there and summed it up really well and how silly the talk of how mtm got us here is.

By: Mannwich

Mannwich — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:48:53 +0000

@ben22: Heard that as well but how does changing the rule really change anything? It merely prolongs the game of “pretend”, IMO. Yes, it could spur a pretend rally of sorts, but then we’ll just be back here again at some point.

By: ben22

ben22 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:53:47 +0000

Has anyone else heard this buzz they are going to stop mark to market and possibly announce this tom.

What a horrible idea but that would surely make the market rally hard.

By: Mannwich

Mannwich — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:22:11 +0000

I just love how CNBC still prattles on about “the street” or “the markets” liking this or that, as if that isn’t a huge part of the problem that got us into this mess. Who cares what the effing “street” likes or doesn’t like at this point? Do the frigging RIGHT thing that will fix this for the long term and screw those bastards. Too much short-term thinking still in play here.

By: Steve Barry

Steve Barry — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:11:52 +0000

I have been screaming about low short interest for a year…a sign of crippled hedge funds and a very compelling reason to be short now. In addition, volume ticked up a bit and down goes Frazier today. Also, despite a near 400 point drop, total put/call closed at only .88???? This is a joke. II Bulls dropped less than 1%.

Expect a major down move in equities.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:16:05 +0000

Considering most hedge funds took a bath last year, there is less money laying around to hedge with. Then there is the uncertainty of will the govt just arbitrarily stop short sales.

Then this time last year we still had Bears, Lehman, and investment banks. Less players to take risk, no investment banks to leverage the risk. Less options being placed and traded.

By: JohnnyVee

JohnnyVee — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:07:31 +0000

Maybe investors are just losing interest.

By: DL

DL — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:53:16 +0000

guidepostings @ 4:42

Not suitable for young children

(Or bullish analysts).