Alternative thinking on management fees, Brexit reactions and Bill Ackman's blues

Alternative Thinking on Management Fees, Brexit Reactions, and Bill Ackman's Blues

“…a Bermuda-based reinsurer whose investment portfolio is run by Loeb, is cutting its management fee to 1.5% per year from 2%...”

It continues…

Alternative thinking on Brexit gains, Brexit losses and CNBC's booking schedule

“What a day.”

That's Crispen Odey, London-based hedge fund manager and the founding partner of Odey Asset Management, talking about the Brexit.

As The Wall Street Journal explains, Odey publicly backed Britain's departure from the European Union and that he “set up his $10 billion firm accordingly.”

Gravitational waves can reveal how black holes are 'born'

By: Victoria Woollaston

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Epsilon Theory: Waiting for Humpty Dumpty

Brexit is a Bear Stearns moment, not a Lehman moment. That's not to diminish what's happening (markets felt like death in March, 2008), but this isn't the event to make you run for the hills.

Alternative Thinking on Hedge Fund Rankings, Bill Ackman's Blues and Facebook Tyranny

The top 100 hedge funds averaged a return north of 10.5% in 2015, and the three-year average is a tad below 17%. Meanwhile, there are a lot of equity-long-short funds, indicating that good stock pickers are still around.

Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston is 'Power Rangers' new Zordon

By: Matt Kamen

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Birds can grasp the basics of human grammar

Researchers have found that budgerigars and zebra finches can understand the abstract relation between sounds

By: Matthew Reynolds

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Short-term signals in E-minis, crude and gold

The Cycle Projection Oscillator (CPO) is indicating some potential near-term opportunities in several markets.

Looking at a 240-minute chart of the E-mini S&P 500 shows potential weakness over the next couple of days (see chart).

The CPO is also projecting WTI Crude oil to slip over the next few days. WTI has recently dropped from overbought territory according to the CPO and is sitting near its 10- and 20-day moving average lines (see chart).

Is it time to dump gold and buy platinum?

For a relatively safe investment, the market says investors should be selling gold and buying platinum. That can be done either by buying a platinum exchange-traded fund and selling a similar amount of a gold ETF or simply by trading gold coins for a greater number of platinum coins.

The Fed giveth and the bullion banks taketh away

Janet Yellen just blew all remaining semblances of credibility believed to be still present at the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.

Gold is the watchman warning of stormy economic seas ahead

A massive "financial blip" is on the radar screen, headed directly for your position. It's not the government coming to help you. But it is mostly the result of their formulated policies which have stood proverbial common sense on its head.

Alternative thinking on unreasonable expectations, bad content models and the election

In a piece subtly titled “Institutional Investors are Delusional,” Meb Faber points out that the mean expectations in a poll of investors on net returns is 13%. That would require a gross return of 20%. Just 1% of more than 400 respondents (so just four people) are rational.

Reasons why Dodd-Frank was a horrible law

One thing I have noticed over the years is when there is a crisis, it's a really bad time to pass sweeping legislation. The momentum and justification for legislation comes from fear. “We don't want that to happen again”, supporters say. For example, 9/11 happens and we get the Department of Homeland Security which is mostly a waste of money and allows the government to pry into all kinds of places it shouldn't.

Alternative thinking on Uncle Carl, Dell's penalty and impact investing

"I got into trading about two, maybe three years ago, and it seemed to really capture my interest so I figured, what's the best way for me to be able to do this and make money?"

That's Greg Piechota, a business school student who wants to work for a hedge fund. Piechota is part of a CNBC profile about the challenges that hedge funds face when seeking new talent.