Disqus - Friends of McLarty

Re: Let Them Eat Data

gregordotus — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:30:40 -0000

Ha! What a line! Very well done.

G

Re: Hedge Fund Lansdowne Partners Favors Large Caps In Developed Countries

marketfolly — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:03:41 -0000

Hey thanks glad you enjoyed! No unfortunately the documents are confidential and can't be posted up. We do it this way so we can cover future updates. If we were to post the documents themselves, we don't think we'd receive any future ones.

Re: When a blog beats a NYT story

mathewi — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:15:50 -0000

Yes that's a good point, Scott. I find it hard to understand why there
wasn't even a simple pointer to the blog though.

Re: When a blog beats a NYT story

mathewi — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:17:46 -0000

Thanks for the comment, Dave. I agree that it shouldn't have been either/or
-- why would the NYT not package the two together as a feature, or at the
very least include a link to the blog? I just don't understand that. In
any case, congrats to you and to Lindsay on a job well done.

Re: How Long Can The Rally Last?

marketfolly — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:22:43 -0000

hey thanks for the comment. Yea definitely RIMM has a lot of work ahead, but at the same time they do have a loyal consumer base. But the smart phone industry is highly competitive and cut-throat so will be interesting to see how it plays out. Always have to monitor the fundamentals to identify which companies to play and then the technicals to figure out how to play them.

Re: Financial Headlines for 2010…

marketfolly — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:45:27 -0000

haha damnit, i'll custom make a DOW 50K hoodie then

Re: Let Them Eat Data

gregordotus — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:09:53 -0000

Nicely put, and nicely written. Thankyou.

G

Re: Let Them Eat Data

gregordotus — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:08:28 -0000

Thanks Kate. Post is now updated to reflect correct Question Time(s).

G

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:41:22 -0000

So newspapers fail to convert readers who come in through search. Is
that Google's fault, or the Internet's fault, or is it the fault of
the newspaper for not knowing (or caring) how to engage and convert
and retain readers? Better to focus on charging an ever-shrinking
number of devoted readers ever-increasing sums for the same old
content. Great strategy.

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:18:28 -0000

Obviously he still has promotional power -- all kinds of it. So I'll be interested to see what happens to his business when he removes Google and virtually all of social media from that equation. Should be a fascinating test case.

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:36:03 -0000

Yes, I can see how Rupert would see things that way -- and so he is willing
to potentially endanger the long-term online growth (if not survival) of
some of his key media properties because he wants to take down Google so
they don't someday decide to compete with him. Classic.

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:08:27 -0000

I didn't say that's all they should care about, Mark -- I said that when it
comes to search, all they should care about is that readers can find their
content, not whether Google or Microsoft or Yahoo is on top.

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:14:01 -0000

I don't see how it's a net benefit to News Corp. -- or any other major media
outlet, for that matter -- if they all pull out of Google and no one
benefits directly, but Google is somehow negatively impacted. The only
companies I can think of that benefit in that scenario are Microsoft and
Yahoo, but why should Murdoch or anyone else celebrate that? All they care
about (or should care about) is that people can find their content. So my
two things would be:

1. News Corp. pulls out of the index and nothing happens, in which case why
did they bother?

2. they pull out of the index and they lose all kinds of traffic and
mind-share and attention and promotional value through link-sharing, blogs,
etc. -- but they don't notice until it's too late, and by that point
re-entering the index doesn't help.

That sounds like a sucker bet to me.

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:03:48 -0000

Strikes me as a great approach, George -- the same way many blogs have
"landing page" boxes that promote their RSS feed, related posts, etc.

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:41:56 -0000

Fair enough, Mark -- although I think that the theoretical Fox News audience is more fungible than either you or Ian (or Rupert) want to admit. In any case, what you have described is a recipe for maintaining a certain audience, not increasing it.

Re: Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Talks General Growth Properties (GGWPQ) & Target (TGT)

marketfolly — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:40:54 -0000

Douglas, thanks so much for your comprehensive post about your experiences with the retailer. Very insightful stuff and this is the kind of impression they have made on customers and members of the community and it's very impressive. Don't worry about being unfamiliar with Ackman and his hedge fund gang as everyone is new to a topic at some point. While (as you point out) he doesn't come across as a corporate raider, he is definitely pushing for change. I don't think he personally thinks he can run the company better, but he has identified changes that they can make in order to run more efficiently and position themselves better going forward. He indeed is very well-spoken and has always been that way, which of course downplays what he is there to do: institute change. I wouldn't view it as a tyrannic takeover by any means, but yes it must be odd to people like yourself who have never heard of him and then he all of a sudden barges in.

He is a successful hedge fund manager that runs investment funds worth billions of dollars. If you type in "Ackman" on the search bar on our site you'll find plenty of other information on him. His father was involved in real estate and as such he has taken on knowledge in that regard. He is very well known within the investment community and I'd almost venture to say he 'leverages the public' in that he is always getting out and promoting his ideas and investment positions so that everyone will better understand and not be afraid. On one hand I'd say he has good intentions, but on the other hand he's running a fund that is dependent on performance results, which means that he eventually needs shares of TGT (and his other positions) to head in the direction he is wagering.

Hope this helps and again sincere thanks for taking the time to pen your comment, very interesting stories.

Jay
@marketfolly

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:36:47 -0000

I think news is more of a commodity than either you or Rupert wants to admit, Ian.

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:53:18 -0000

Thanks for the comment, Mark; always a pleasure to hear from you.
Don't read too much into the "crusty old billionaire" crack -- I was
just yanking your chain a little :-)

As far as the whole business model thing is concerned, please read my
response to Ian -- I am not some kind of business naïf, or Internet
triumphalist. And I don't think advertising is the key to making
content pay online, in part because of the factors you describe.

But the fact remains that in order to prove value, or even
successfully create it, we have to use tools like Twitter and Facebook
and yes, even Google -- not cut them off and put roadblocks in their
way. People sharing our content is one of the best marketing tools we
have available; why would we make that even harder than we do already?

You should be thanking me for saying that you're right about the power
of Twitter etc. But you don't explain how that jibes with Rupert's
Google-blocking and pay-walling - which is understandable, because it
doesn't.

Go Mavs!

Re: Your readers are paying you — with attention

mathewi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:52:13 -0000

Thanks for the comment, Ian. I get the monetization piece -- that's
obviously where the "economy" part of "attention economy" come in. I'm not
some kind of Internet utopian who thinks money will magically fall from the
sky. But how do people know that your content is valuable to them if they
can't see it or read it or share it with others? That's part of what
generates the value in the first place.

Like the commenter on my Nieman post, I find it intensely frustrating not to
be able to share a link with someone because of a pay wall. So not only
does that frustrate me, a dedicated user or customer of that content site,
but it frustrates every *potential* user or customer as well. How is that a
good strategy?

My point is that social recommendation networks and other tools of "social
media" are a crucial part of how media entities gain attention -- which is a
pretty scarce commodity. To use your store analogy, how are people supposed
to know that they want to buy your content or services if your windows are
boarded up and you don't let anyone inside the store without charging them?

Re: Gregor Weekly Model Portfolio Update: 04 November 2009 GregorWeekly

gregordotus — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:17:20 -0000

Jeff thanks so much for the suggestion. And I think it's a good one. I will transition the position summary to a Table. Best, Gregor

Re: Whitney Tilson & Hedge Fund T2 Partners: October Commentary

marketfolly — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:57:05 -0000

haha good ole Perot, I have seen the old stuff and obviously heard stories. A friend knows his grandchildren well. Should get him to do a reunion tour

Re: Warren Buffett's Recommended Reading List

marketfolly — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:03:24 -0000

glad you enjoyed!

Re: Market Folly Custom Portfolio Ranked #1 On Alphaclone Leaderboard

marketfolly — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:03:04 -0000

Yep, correct.

Re: Market Folly Custom Portfolio Ranked #1 On Alphaclone Leaderboard

marketfolly — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:19:06 -0000

Hey Ben, thanks very much. The actual cloning on the site uses short SPY but if you were to re-create the portfolio for your own investment, you could also just buy SH (short S&P ETF).

In Alphaclone you have the option to go long-only, and hedge with: 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. Obviously each hedging metric shifts portfolio performance around a bit. Surprisingly though, long-only still performs quite well too. We chose 50% as we wanted a decent amount of protection from severe drawdowns as we've had 2 recent periods (2002, 2008) with such occurrences. Our goal is to outperform over the long-term and believe that protecting from losses is the top priority.

You can check out Alphaclone completely free with the 14day free trial if you like (http://bit.ly/alphacloning). That way you can play around all you want, as it's easier than someone just taking a bunch of static screenshots for you once inside.

Hope this helps a little bit and let us know if you have any questions. Same goes for the AlphaClone team, they're very helpful.

Re: Market Folly Custom Portfolio Ranked #1 On Alphaclone Leaderboard

marketfolly — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:52:50 -0000

Look forward to revealing it as we shift our focus to managers we think will outperform in the future!

Indeed Atticus will be going separate ways so they'll have to replace it or something of the sort.

Not sure what' sup with Par, have never really looked at it in-depth!