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Feb 24, 2010 4:17 am

[quote=buyandhold] Treasuries.

[/quote]



US govies gonna blow?



funny

you’re probably right. Obama nation has us headed to the pink sheets

Feb 24, 2010 4:34 am

[quote=deekay]Thanks for the heads up.  I was not aware that there was an actual term for how BABs worked.[/quote]

Taxable GOs are a great way to get yield for conservative clients with IRAs.  Beats the hell out of CDs and treasuries.

Feb 24, 2010 5:07 pm

Private REITS chap my hide.  Every one that I have seen on investor statements show the paper value, but none of the clients were aware that 100% of the ones I have seen have suspended redemption.  If they were exchange traded I doubt they would be valued at 50% of what is showing on the statement.  When you look at the REITs financial statements (which are often hard to find), cash flow is often negative, yet they are still paying a 7% yield.

Feb 24, 2010 8:16 pm
joelv72:

Private REITS chap my hide.  Every one that I have seen on investor statements show the paper value, but none of the clients were aware that 100% of the ones I have seen have suspended redemption.  If they were exchange traded I doubt they would be valued at 50% of what is showing on the statement.  When you look at the REITs financial statements (which are often hard to find), cash flow is often negative, yet they are still paying a 7% yield.

That's how they are supposed to work. The negative cash flow as you put it, is actually negative income. EBIDA is positive in most credible cases. In fact, the depreciation is what allows them to pay 7% yeild due to the tax advantage nature of real estate holdings.
Feb 24, 2010 8:21 pm
Buckeye:

For good reasons watch  munis.  Higher tax rates are coming…

One thing that is pushing down the yields on them though is the lack of supply. BAB's are more attractive to investor's as a whole and cost the municipalities the same interest payments as lower yielding tax-free Muni's. The demand for the tax frees coming to market is high by those that want them so the prices are being bid up.   High tax rates will further push that yield down. The real interesting thing is what will happen to the 2011 issues after the BAB program runs out? I think the corporate market will have a nice rally. My opinion is that Corporates are being pushed down by BAB's and once that runs out their yields will come down (since the BAB alternative is gone).   Most agree that BAB's are noticably better than corporates for the yield to risk ratio. Less demand currently means corporates will rebound when that demand improves.
Feb 24, 2010 8:25 pm
LSUAlum:

[quote=joelv72]Private REITS chap my hide.  Every one that I have seen on investor statements show the paper value, but none of the clients were aware that 100% of the ones I have seen have suspended redemption.  If they were exchange traded I doubt they would be valued at 50% of what is showing on the statement.  When you look at the REITs financial statements (which are often hard to find), cash flow is often negative, yet they are still paying a 7% yield.

That's how they are supposed to work. The negative cash flow as you put it, is actually negative income. EBIDA is positive in most credible cases. In fact, the depreciation is what allows them to pay 7% yeild due to the tax advantage nature of real estate holdings.[/quote] No, negative cash flow is what I said.  Don't go there, I know me some financial statement analysis.
Feb 24, 2010 8:31 pm
joelv72:

[quote=LSUAlum][quote=joelv72]Private REITS chap my hide.  Every one that I have seen on investor statements show the paper value, but none of the clients were aware that 100% of the ones I have seen have suspended redemption.  If they were exchange traded I doubt they would be valued at 50% of what is showing on the statement.  When you look at the REITs financial statements (which are often hard to find), cash flow is often negative, yet they are still paying a 7% yield.

That's how they are supposed to work. The negative cash flow as you put it, is actually negative income. EBIDA is positive in most credible cases. In fact, the depreciation is what allows them to pay 7% yeild due to the tax advantage nature of real estate holdings.[/quote] No, negative cash flow is what I said.  Don't go there, I know me some financial statement analysis.[/quote] Well then clarify. You said they have suspended redemptions yet they have a 7% yield? So they have a 7% yield contingent upon positive cash flow or regardless of cash flow? Suspended redemptions should make them trade at pennies on the dollar (look at Ford's Preferred Issues, they are 5 years in arrears on payment and trade at a HUGE discount)
Feb 24, 2010 8:44 pm
LSUAlum:

[quote=joelv72][quote=LSUAlum][quote=joelv72]Private REITS chap my hide.  Every one that I have seen on investor statements show the paper value, but none of the clients were aware that 100% of the ones I have seen have suspended redemption.  If they were exchange traded I doubt they would be valued at 50% of what is showing on the statement.  When you look at the REITs financial statements (which are often hard to find), cash flow is often negative, yet they are still paying a 7% yield.

That's how they are supposed to work. The negative cash flow as you put it, is actually negative income. EBIDA is positive in most credible cases. In fact, the depreciation is what allows them to pay 7% yeild due to the tax advantage nature of real estate holdings.[/quote] No, negative cash flow is what I said.  Don't go there, I know me some financial statement analysis.[/quote] Well then clarify. You said they have suspended redemptions yet they have a 7% yield? So they have a 7% yield contingent upon positive cash flow or regardless of cash flow? Suspended redemptions should make them trade at pennies on the dollar (look at Ford's Preferred Issues, they are 5 years in arrears on payment and trade at a HUGE discount)[/quote] OK, the one I looked at the other day had negative cash flow (net income before non-cash items).  The 7% yield is a dividend that (you guessed it!) is invested right back into the REIT (not sure if there is a cash option, didn't get that far once I saw the insane CDSC.)  The REIT was paying for this with new funds coming in (Ponzi, anyone?).  Since it is a private REIT, there is no exchange to quote a price, what you get on the statement is a cost basis plus the reinvested dividends.  The only way you can get your money out is to redeem your shares with the REIT.  The REIT has suspended redemption (everyone wanted out all at once).  The client shows me the statement and says something like "I bet you couldn't put up numbers like that, no losses-see!!", without knowing he couldn't get his money out if he tried, and it would trade for pennies on the dollar if it had been listed on an exchange.
Feb 24, 2010 9:47 pm

Private REITs in fee based accounts is an issue (seperate from what you guys are discussing).  The main reason is that you are lucky if the REIT is priced annually and potentially you can be charging fees on $10 share price when in reality it is $8.

Feb 24, 2010 10:05 pm
Wet_Blanket:

Private REITs in fee based accounts is an issue (seperate from what you guys are discussing).  The main reason is that you are lucky if the REIT is priced annually and potentially you can be charging fees on $10 share price when in reality it is $8.

You know, I have been mildly curious about how they go about pegging a value per share on a private REIT.  Is it based on book value, or do they use a market value of the underlying real assets?
Feb 25, 2010 12:17 am

To tell you the truth, I am not sure.  I believe they value the underlying real estate assets on a periodic basis.  I have a brother-in-law who is a lawyer for a very large REIT firm, whose brain has been picked over by yours truely, but that question never came up to me.

Feb 25, 2010 12:27 am

Enough about REITs, I’m telling you - Peer to Peer lending is a hot mess.

Feb 25, 2010 3:06 am
Wet_Blanket:

Enough about REITs, I’m telling you - Peer to Peer lending is a hot mess.



sooo.    

an intermediary gets private bowwows and lenders together?

I have been reading the web site.   its a lending bookie.   

how much do they? is it a "pooled" loan. interesting
Feb 25, 2010 1:15 pm

I don't have the exact numbers, but a couple million a month (at least Prosper does), which is low volume compared to what they did before the SEC shut them down.

Quick background on this: A borrower goes to the website and puts up a listing for whatever they want (between $1,000 and $25,000).  A credit check is performed and certain financials are posted for lenders to see.  Lenders who want to bid on the action put in their minimum bid, and it goes off like an auction.  So one loan for $5,000 could have 100 different lenders on it.   The problem was that these were promissory notes sold by Prosper to the lenders (technically) and considered securities, which were never registered with the SEC or the respective states.  So the SEC shut them down and they went itno a quiet period (for about 6 months) as they got their affairs in order.   Now they are back and have added new restrictions on who can borrow money (minimum credit scores).  Previously, the default rate on these loans were staggering, I believe around 40+%.  Some borrowers were basically stealing money with no intention to pay back, because the collections process was a joke.  You could basically get $25,000 for a ding on your credit history.   Current issues facing the company is that it is running in the red.  They are living on short term borrowed money from VC.  Their advertising is blatantly misleading.  They advertise returns around 9%, which is no where near what the average "investor" gets (usually a negative return).  They compare themeselves to irrelevant benchmarks when it suits them (with the stock market tanked, it made their smaller negative return look better).   The whole thing is a joke, which is a shame because I like the idea of cutting banks out of the loan business.  If Wallstreet ever bundled this garbage, it would be a terrible.  LendingClub is trying to get FAs and RIAs to invest client money in these loans - which I also think is foolish due to the risk and the inability to predict default (totally crapshoot).  If by chance you picked a basket of loans that didn't default, you could earn a really nice return.
Feb 25, 2010 1:18 pm

[quote=Wet_Blanket]

I don’t have the exact numbers, but a couple million a month (at least Prosper does), which is low volume compared to what they did before the SEC shut them down.

Quick background on this: A borrower goes to the website and puts up a listing for whatever they want (between $1,000 and $25,000).  A credit check is performed and certain financials are posted for lenders to see.  Lenders who want to bid on the action put in their minimum bid, and it goes off like an auction.  So one loan for $5,000 could have 100 different lenders on it.   The problem was that these were promissory notes sold by Prosper to the lenders (technically) and considered securities, which were never registered with the SEC or the respective states.  So the SEC shut them down and they went itno a quiet period (for about 6 months) as they got their affairs in order.   Now they are back and have added new restrictions on who can borrow money (minimum credit scores).  Previously, the default rate on these loans were staggering, I believe around 40+%.  Some borrowers were basically stealing money with no intention to pay back, because the collections process was a joke.  You could basically get $25,000 for a ding on your credit history.   Current issues facing the company is that it is running in the red.  They are living on short term borrowed money from VC.  Their advertising is blatantly misleading.  They advertise returns around 9%, which is no where near what the average "investor" gets (usually a negative return).  They compare themeselves to irrelevant benchmarks when it suits them (with the stock market tanked, it made their smaller negative return look better).   The whole thing is a joke, which is a shame because I like the idea of cutting banks out of the loan business.  If Wallstreet ever bundled this garbage, it would be a terrible.  LendingClub is trying to get FAs and RIAs to invest client money in these loans - which I also think is foolish due to the risk and the inability to predict default (totally crapshoot).  If by chance you picked a basket of loans that didn't default, you could earn a really nice return.[/quote]

It's funny, they were talking about this about three years ago in one of the financial porn mags.  I remember thinking what an idiotic idea it was.  They were hiring people to actually call the borrowers (or go see them) and threaten them at one point.  Then they got caught doing that and were forced to back off.
Feb 25, 2010 1:44 pm

Yeah, the whole business model is heavily beneficial to deat beat borrowers.  This came to my attention while I was working on my MBA.  One of my “free thinking” finance professors brought it up as an interesting idea.

  I actually wanted to test out the idea and take out a small loan.  I was registered at the time, so I needed permission to do the transaction - because I couldn't determine whether or not it was a security, and whether or not I would have been considered "selling away."   I talked to Prosper for clarification - they didn't know.  I called up FINRA - they didn't know what the hell I was talking about.  Said that first I needed to know if these notes were considered securities.  So I called up the SEC and talked to one of their lawyers - who had no idea.  6 months later they get shut down by the SEC.  (I'm not taking credit for this, there have been plenty of red flags along the way).   Funniest part is how the notes are structured.  They are technically owned by Prosper, not the lender/investor.  So when they go tits up, the lenders are screwed because the notes will be taken by creditors.    There are actually people that have dumped upwards of $500,000 into these "investments."
Feb 25, 2010 6:13 pm

As an aside -

  Pooled lending is basically what the Government lending programs do.   Similarities - Borrowers are lower rated and do not get money from Private Banks (i.e. bank won't lend it's own money to borrower based on risk / reward) - Borrowers meet lower minimum standards to borrow money from one institution (either lendingclub.com OR the US Government in this example) - Lending institution does not use it's own funds loan the money (banks have an expectation of profit to losses that this entity does not concern itself with because it's not using it's own money) - Touted as a social experiment that makes solid sense to give good quality people loans they may not be otherwise able to get - Underestimates the losses from defaults - Interest rates on these loans are LOWER (with higher risk, wtf??) than private loans (inefficient lending anyone?)   Differences: - Lenders (individuals in both cases) have an expectation of return from lending club but have no such expectation from US Government - Individuals have the option to particpate in lendingclub but NOT the option to pay taxes     So if lending clubs or pooled lending is a bad idea, what's that make Government Loan Programs?    
Feb 25, 2010 8:59 pm

[quote=LSUAlum] As an aside -



Pooled lending is basically what the Government lending programs do.



Similarities

- Borrowers are lower rated and do not get money from Private Banks (i.e. bank won’t lend it’s own money to borrower based on risk / reward)

- Borrowers meet lower minimum standards to borrow money from one institution (either lendingclub.com OR the US Government in this example)

- Lending institution does not use it’s own funds loan the money (banks have an expectation of profit to losses that this entity does not concern itself with because it’s not using it’s own money)

- Touted as a social experiment that makes solid sense to give good quality people loans they may not be otherwise able to get

- Underestimates the losses from defaults

- Interest rates on these loans are LOWER (with higher risk, wtf??) than private loans (inefficient lending anyone?)



Differences:

- Lenders (individuals in both cases) have an expectation of return from lending club but have no such expectation from US Government

- Individuals have the option to particpate in lendingclub but NOT the option to pay taxes





So if lending clubs or pooled lending is a bad idea, what’s that make Government Loan Programs?



[/quote]



fukcing retarded post.



idiot

Feb 26, 2010 7:01 pm

Wet



we do 95% disret managed.    usually say no to clients ideas



we like and own F

guy called to buy f preferred   (cramer pick )



look into it. makes sense



we buy name.   a MF preferred, right?   safe



next day…Skullmobile EVERYWHERE



bust the trade, call the FBI etc etc



too risky, client objectives to conservative blah blah.



i laughed.   thought about you



Feb 26, 2010 7:33 pm

Hahaha - that’s music to my ears.  Another upstart thwarted!

  j/k   Did the F position plus the F preferred push the % of the portfolio to that company into the "Danger Zone"?   And did I understand you correctly, did you try to add this non-managed position into a SMA or an account managed by you?