Managers: Greg Placidi and Chris Lowe Fund: AIC American Advantage Style: Value Strategy: Invest only in U.S. financial services companies that concentrate on executing their long-term strategy, rather than short-term tactics. Looking at them to demonstrate a strong corporate culture through the recognition of all their stakeholders and to focus on good execution by delivering on their promises. Buy recommendations: MBIA Inc. Wells Fargo & Co. Prudential Financial Inc. Sell recommendation: Merrill Lynch & Co. PREVIOUS PICKS Commentary: "With all the volatility we are experiencing, picking individual stocks has become very difficult. What we have found is that we have reduced our risk and increased our opportunities by looking at things from a portfolio standpoint. The last time we spoke [on May 2] we recommended AIG, Wells Fargo and Hartford Financial and we were negative on Merrill Lynch. Since that time, AIG is down 54%, Wells Fargo is up 1.7%, Hartford is up 11% and Merrill Lynch is down 49%. So we got some right and we got some wrong. If you look at US financials over that time, on an aggregate they are down almost 17% and the general U.S market is down 6%. Our fund, by comparison is down only 4%. We were able to offset some of our bigger losses, partly by making investments at the bottom in two bond insurers: MBIA, which is up about 180% since we bought and Syncora Holdings, which is up about 160%. "One of the insurance c ...
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Managers: Greg Placidi and Chris Lowe Fund: AIC American Advantage Style: Value Strategy: Invest only in U.S. financial services companies that concentrate on executing their long-term strategy, rather than short-term tactics. Looking at them to demonstrate a strong corporate culture through the recognition of all their stakeholders and to focus on good execution by delivering on their promises. Buy recommendations: MBIA Inc. Wells Fargo & Co. Prudential Financial Inc. Sell recommendation: Merrill Lynch & Co. PREVIOUS PICKS Commentary: "With all the volatility we are experiencing, picking individual stocks has become very difficult. What we have found is that we have reduced our risk and increased our opportunities by looking at things from a portfolio standpoint. The last time we spoke [on May 2] we recommended AIG, Wells Fargo and Hartford Financial and we were negative on Merrill Lynch. Since that time, AIG is down 54%, Wells Fargo is up 1.7%, Hartford is up 11% and Merrill Lynch is down 49%. So we got some right and we got some wrong. If you look at US financials over that time, on an aggregate they are down almost 17% and the general U.S market is down 6%. Our fund, by comparison is down only 4%. We were able to offset some of our bigger losses, partly by making investments at the bottom in two bond insurers: MBIA, which is up about 180% since we bought and Syncora Holdings, which is up about 160%. "One of the insurance c ...