Author Archives: Scalper1

Market Lab Report – Premarket Pulse 3/3/16

Major averages finished higher yesterday on lower volume as the bounce in stocks and oil continues. After such a strong performance Tuesday, yesterday’s calm consolidation was a sign of strength. The market may continue to bide its time ahead of tomorrow’s monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs numbers. That said, defensive and junk-off-the-bottom type stocks continue to lead in terms of price performance, though some sector rotation away from defensive names has been observed. Nevertheless, the lack of quality leadership remains which could end this bounce sooner than later. Keep in mind, however, that bounces can persist longer than expected especially given the easy money environment observed around the world. Further, the anticipation of negative interest rates in the US could also help push equities higher as markets are forward looking by as many as 6-9 months, as negative rates could force capital into hard assets and equities. Solar power company SEDG had a pocket pivot. Earnings and sales are soaring, group rank 42. It is the solar leader in the residential market globally.

Do Stock Spinoffs Still Outperform? A Summary Of The Research

Ever since I read, You Can Be a Stock Market Genius , I’ve been fascinated with stock spinoffs. The book is written by Joel Greenblatt, who is a certified rock star in the value investing community. When he was running his highly concentrated hedge fund, he returned over 50% annually for a decade. Incredibly impressive. In the book, Greenblatt devotes chapter 3 to spinoffs. In that chapter, this line caught my eye: There are plenty of reasons why a company might choose to unload or otherwise separate itself from the fortunes of the business to be spun off. There is really one reason to pay attention when they do: you can make a pile of money investing in spinoffs. The facts are overwhelming. Stocks of spinoff companies, and even shares of the parent companies that do the spinning off, significantly and consistently outperform the market averages . Now this book was written in 1997. Since then, many a hedge fund manager has read the book and the “spinoff anomaly” is relatively well known. You would think that this inefficiency in the market would fade with time as more investors look to exploit it. As such, I wanted to review all studies that are available to see if spinoffs still do, in fact, outperform. Here is what I found: Here are the links to learn more about each study: Restructuring Through Spinoffs: The Stock Market Evidence J.P Morgan Research Report Corporate Spinoffs Beat The Market Credit Suisse: Do Spinoffs Create or Destroy Value The Stock Price Performance of Spinoff Subsidiaries, Their Parents, and the Spinoff ETF Global Spinoffs & The Hidden Value of Corporate Change In short, the answer is “Yes, spinoffs still outperform.” If you want to invest in spinoffs, consider investing in the Guggenheim Spinoff Index (NYSE: CSD ). But if you would prefer to pick your own spinoffs, stay tuned. I will be publishing a series of articles on the stock spinoff market and how to pick the winners. If you would like to read them, follow me on Seeking Alpha and you will be notified when I publish new research. Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Advisors May Need To Make Changes To Win HNW Business

High-net worth (“HNW”) investors, which are defined as households with investable assets between $5 million and $25 million, accounted for one-quarter of the nearly $64 trillion U.S. investable asset share in 2015. Obviously, HNW investors are highly prized by most financial advisory firms, but aspiring advisors often underestimate the breadth of business changes that are required in order to properly serve these customers, according to a recent white paper published by BNY Mellon’s Pershing: What Wealth Wants: Refining Your Firm’s Approach to the High-Net-Worth Market . Some of the required business changes may include: Addition of new services Expanded set of financial planning products and solutions Higher service standards Ability to scale More staff Increased spending on operations and technology Pricing adjustments “Serving this segment successfully is not just a matter of identifying prospects and converting them,” said Katie Swain, director of financial solutions at Pershing, in a statement. “It requires a substantial evolution and transformation of a firm’s approach to service and infrastructure to ensure that HNW clients can be profitably and sufficiently served over the long term.” Wirehouses and private banks were the types of firms that traditionally served the HNW market. More recently, however, independent advisory firms have been expanding their capabilities in pursuit of HNW business — and they’ve been successful, thanks in part to their ability to generate greater customer satisfaction by providing more individualized service. “HNW clients’ expectations for customized solutions are driven by the complex and unique circumstances they experience in their lives,” said Gabriel Garcia, director of relationship management at Pershing Advisor Solutions. “They seek solutions for leveraging existing intangible assets in a way that minimizes interest costs and tax consequences, and advisors need to deliver these services in a seamless way.” For the independent advisors that succeed in winning HNW investor business, the rewards are lucrative. The average client size for an advisor serving HNW investors is more than 30 times that of an advisor serving clients with less than $1 million in assets under management. For more information, download a pdf copy of the white paper .