The Tasgall Group

Here’s another unique and compelling ETF… the Claymore/Sabrient Stealth Fund (STH). The stated purpose:

The objective of the [fund] is to actively represent a group of stocks that are ?flying under the radar screen? of Wall Street?s analysts, but which have displayed robust growth characteristics that give them the potential to outperform on a risk-adjusted basis the Russell 2000? Index and other small-cap-oriented benchmark indices.

So they shop for small, good companies that have no Wall Street coverage. The fund is only three months old, but they have a sister index that back-tests the idea several years back.

If you’re an active trader and want some good ideas in the mid-cap range, they also list the ETF’s holdings and update it every day.

Starting in April, the Internet search company will let rank-and-file staff auction off their stock options to the highest bidding institutional investor, the company said Tuesday. [MarketWatch]

It seems like the Googleplex has found another way to work the markets for every last cent…? By selling stock options in the open market, employees can collect the current value available from exercising stock options, and also collect a time premium for the remaining life of the options.

I’m curious how the SEC will interpret this…

From today’s Dealbook email:

REIT mergers and acquisitions have reached record levels this year. Some 22 transactions totaling $102.8 billion, including debt, have been announced according to the research company SNL Financial, compared with 11 deals valued at $28.8 billion for all of last year and a total of $92 billion in transactions for the last six years combined.

Go to Article from The New York Times

Also noteworthy, Dealbook has an entire section on the happenings in Real Estate M&A for those of you following the REIT story closely…

It seems like the vogue thing today to buy any steady-stream of cash producing asset like real estate (even skyscrapers), leverage to the hilt, package and sell the asset and debt, and in the process reap the rewards. The impact to publicly traded REITs is obvious from a liquidity analysis standpoint (a la TrimTabs) — everything keeps going up!

It seems that the financial news lately has been full of stories like this (via the FT):

Oil producers shun dollar – Oil producing countries have reduced their exposure to the dollar to the lowest level in two years and shifted oil income into euros, yen and sterling, according to new data from the Bank for International Settlements.

The cover of The Economist last week even taunted a falling dollar: (more…)

After noticing that CUBA (the closed-end fund, not the country) is trading at a 70% premium to its underlying assets, I started to think about shorting the fund… Here is my thought process and the end result. (more…)

As 2006 is rapidly coming to a close, it’s worth a reminder to check on all your year-end planning… Here’s a bullet list of things to think about…

• Are there any losses you have in taxable accounts that you’d want to realize for tax loss selling?
• Have you contributed your max to retirement accounts to minimize taxable income?
• Rebalance your portfolio if you do it once a year.
• Pray that you don’t qualify for AMT.
• Watch for the earnings distribution estimates from your mutual funds held in taxable accounts. (more…)

For the latest random news articles on hedge funds, Pfizer, REITs, and more… (more…)

Titled “Out-of-the-box Thoughts on the Yield Curve”, Steve Saville throws out some very good commentary on the current yield curve inversion. I have to admit that his commentary has defined my own understanding of what yield curve inversion really means and what (if anything) it forecasts. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal has compiled a list of the more than 120 companies that have come under scrutiny for past stock-option grants here.? The list is long, and worth reviewing to remind yourself how many executives put their own financial well being above the fiduciary responsibility of protecting the rights of their shareholders.

The problem is so widespread that it is even showing up in Dilbert…

I just ran into an amusing interchange between CXO Advisors and the Boo-Yeah man himself…? read it here: Guru Grades ? Jim Cramer Comments on Our Evaluations of His Advice.

The result is not too surprising… Cramer shows off his lack of professionalism and his ability to rant and play a game of distraction…