A 2012 FWF Hedge Fund Contest

[adrian2]

I notice that ROM.TO has an opening price of $14.80 for the longs and $14.95 for the shorts. Is there something I don't understand?

I'm guessing you're referring to RIM.

Peter gets a 1% bonus for the name Fund 51.

May I note, in passing, that my hedge fund is in the second half of the table, but I'm currently getting the best long entry: BAC +72.7 %. Of course, the shorts are killing me.

[kcowan]

I notice that RiM.TO has an opening price of $14.80 for the longs and $14.95 for the shorts. Is there something I don't understand?

I'm guessing you're referring to RIM.

Peter gets a 1% bonus for the name Fund 51.

Yes thanks and thanks.

[kcowan]

I have the honour of selecting 2 of Canada's fastest growing companies according to Fortune for 2011:
13 Lulu
16 SLW
100 fastest growing companies worldwide in 2011
Had I selected them correclty, I would be scoring in contention for the leadership in 2012 with an overall currently of 37.8 good for second place.

Luckily I only hold one of these picks (Lulu). I am interested in whether anyone else actually holds/held their picks here?

[Insomniac]

I am interested in whether anyone else actually holds/held their picks here?

No, thank goodness!

Well, I do have XIC which holds my picks.

[ghariton]

I have the honour of selecting 2 of Canada's fastest growing companies according to Fortune for 2011:
13 Lulu
16 SLW
100 fastest growing companies worldwide in 2011
Had I selected them correclty, I would be scoring in contention for the leadership in 2012 with an overall currently of 37.8 good for second place.

Luckily I only hold one of these picks (Lulu). I am interested in whether anyone else actually holds/held their picks here?

Certainly not.

The only individual shares I own are 150 Cisco. (I can't remember why I bought them, but they're no longer worth enough to bother selling them.)

George

[Norbert Schlenker]

Unconfirmed final results for 2012 are at http://libra-investments.com/hf/fwf-2012-final.html

I have other commitments this evening, as it's New Years Eve, so my plan is to vet everything and produce a final final during some televised bowl game tomorrow.

Happy New Year to all.

[peter]

I hold both GIL and ECA as part of a misguided attempt to not pay fees for a Canadian index and to avoid some of the financial/resources weight in the index. I shorted ABX and RIM in the hedge fund competition but don't short for real and don't own either.

I shorted RIM because I think it's unlikely it will survive, and ABX because of a feeling gold is overvalued and mining (the process) will be unpopular and/or difficult (labor wise), not based any real insights. My pick of GIL for the hedge fund competition was based largely on comments from CIBC a bit more than a year ago, when the company was really down after some issues with cotton prices. I have ca. 15 individual Canadian stocks plus XGD (small amount from my first asset allocation, now down to something like 0.5%) , XIC, XIU. The individual stocks include TLM and SU, which I picked for long in the 2013 hedge fund competition.

I'll have to decide whether to buy more individual Canadian stocks or just buy the index going forward but it's not a big issue this year, most new money will go into US and international index funds. If I do buy new Canadian stocks they'll be in the top ten of XIU that I don't have yet. In addition to avoiding index fees I also had/have a faint inclination towards value tilt and at least for a while a very low tax rate for dividends in the particular account that holds them.

[Norbert Schlenker]

I've been through the list carefully now and I believe everything is kosher.

Congratulations to peter on his convincing first place and a big thank you for explaining why he chose as he did.

Someone always has to trail the field, appropriate that it was the Titanic Fund in 2012.

[adrian2]

I'll nominate myself for an honourable mention since my long picks (Citigroup and Bank of America) went up the most (74%). The rationale for picking them was very contrarian in spirit, since (almost) everybody hated the big American banks, and praised quite similar entities north of the border. I kept them for this year's long picks, both here and at Bogleheads.

[like_to_retire]

I'll nominate myself for an honourable mention since my long picks (Citigroup and Bank of America) went up the most (74%). The rationale for picking them was very contrarian in spirit, since (almost) everybody hated the big American banks, and praised quite similar entities north of the border. I kept them for this year's long picks, both here and at Bogleheads.

I also got a kick out of your shorts Adrian2.

You can't pick a loser even when you try... hehehe

ltr