Monthly Archives: December 2008

How To Profit From College Rental Properties

2008 College applications surged. Nationally, more students than ever before—3.3 million—will graduate from high school this year, said David Hawkins of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Two-thirds of the graduates are expected to seek some form of higher education. The trend is expected to plateau next year, then decline slightly. State Colleges/Universities have…

On the boards

This is, by general consensus, about the worst time to be a broker since 1929 – and possibly since 1914 and the start of the First World War. Both retail brokerage and prime brokerage firms have been kicked around by the crisis of the past few months, and both will emerge changed, even ignoring the…

Frontier shift

The fact that emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Middle East have managed to stave off the worst effects of the global credit crunch for over a year has impressed investors enough to rethink their fund strategies and shift large amounts of cash to countries which just five years ago they would have been reluctant…

On the boards

This is, by general consensus, about the worst time to be a broker since 1929 – and possibly since 1914 and the start of the First World War. Both retail brokerage and prime brokerage firms have been kicked around by the crisis of the past few months, and both will emerge changed, even ignoring the…

Defending the indefensible

For a brief moment in October it seemed as if the world’s financial systems were about to implode. What was once unthinkable, and if we are to believe many financial models, unimaginable, was actually happening. Rock solid corporations were crumbling, governments that had long espoused free market capitalism were rushing to bail out banks, in…

Directors beware

Investors are looking for scalps and insurers have warned that companies worldwide – not just in the US, where shareholder actions are more common – face potentially ruinous litigation claims for losses caused either as a direct result of their own actions and failure to manage risks effectively, or through their exposure to those companies…

How To Develop A Pooled Alternative Investment Strategy

The concept of pooling money to increase investment opportunities and reduce risk is not new. Mutual funds, real estate investment trusts, and master limited partnerships have given Wall Street the power to collect smaller amounts of money from many investors with the goal of increasing returns while reducing volatility. Today, many successful IRA investors are looking…