February 8, 2007
When Value Investors Stray from their Circle of Competence
I thought it was curious when Wally Weitz said he was short mid-cap and small-cap stocks; frankly I thought Wally was out of his depth making that call: shorting “over-valued” stocks is absolutely not just another form of value investing.
MDY hit a new all-time high and the inverse MidCap ETFs — MYY and MZZ — of course went to new lows.
Cat: | Time: 11:40 am (utc+8)
February 8th, 2007 at 11:57 am
why people short at all is beyond me and just arrogance. Long and cash as a hedge. waste of time.
Check out trader tim. Guy is bleeding thru his eyeballs.
February 9th, 2007 at 12:21 am
I’d second Howard on that one. Most money is made from long side, and that includes hedge funds. Study after study and more importantly personal experience points to this. If you break even on your shorts during your trading career, consider that a success.
February 9th, 2007 at 12:33 am
He is shorting the whole index…which I think is a little bit moronic in a bull market. Is he that lazy to hand pick overvalued stocks to short? Or am I totally wrong about us being in a bull market!?
However…I wish I was short something like RACK…talk about overvalue…
February 9th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
howard - chairman knows who i am. probably 95% of my trades are intraday shorts…
and i’ve been doing that for years.
it’s not for everyone, and in my case, actually better suits my trading personality.
February 9th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
bob: I think Howard meant long-term shorts, not the day trade shorts we know and love.
February 9th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Obviously, there is a time to short and a time to buy. Its deciphering what time it is now that matters. I often short crappy companies for longer than a trade. I don’t think I’m being arrogant…I wish I had kept my USO short from last Aug longer than I did. But I guess everyone needs to find there own methods that work for them.
February 10th, 2007 at 3:31 am
He’s probably doing an index trade. Essentially shorting small/mid-cap and long large caps.
That’s a perfectly valid trading strategy. Obviously you’re betting against momentum and possibly sentiment, but that’s the nature of the market isn’t it? Momentum versus value.
So - it’s neither a silly strategy nor is it necessarily out of his area of competence…