The top 50 hedge fund managers last year earned $29 billion combined. That figure represents the manager’s own pay–excluding employee compensation–with John Paulson, (Paulson & Company), James Simons (Renaissance Technologies) and George Soros (Quantum Fund) earning a neat ~$3 billion each last year.

The Seeking Alpha article makes the point that these guys earned it–they have figured out how to make money for their partners and clients; their skill sets add value.

On the flip side, Stan O’Neal at Merrill Lynch, Chuck Prince at Citigroup and Robert Nardelli of Home Depot destroy value–if you have a retirement account (IRA, 401K, pension plan)–they took money from you.

Source

On June 6th of 2007, Jim announced the “Four Retiring Horsemen of Tech,” namely, Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC), Dell (DELL), and Cisco Systems (CSCO). Instead, Jim replaced it with his Four NEW Horsemen of Tech: Apple (AAPL), Research-in-Motion (RIMM), Google (GOOG), and Amazon.com (AMZN).

SA Editor Miriam Metzinger writes,

Apple (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM): Two of Cramer’s four horsemen of tech, AAPL and RIMM are riding again. AAPL’s ichat will be to instant messaging what the iPod was to the walkman and “When we get the next generation of the iPhone, it’s going to be game, set, match… Because this is going to be the smartest phone,” said Cramer. RIMM has returned to where it was before its great quarter, and Cramer thinks the stock has room to move because of new product rollouts. “If RIMM reported that quarter today, it’d be at $150.”

Source

There is an interesting article by Markham Lee about GM’s new attempt to realign its eight major brands into four channels, each headed by an executive in charge of sales, marketing and advertising.

Sadly, it does not address GM’s brand issues which stems from how the brands are perceived–and not from dealer alignments or how they are sold. The article suggests that no real change until the company is ready to drop some brands and eliminate overlaps.

Inventories continued to climb for the  US housing market in March as resales of homes fell. Surprisingly though, homebuilder stocks have had strong performers so far in 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

Jim Slater was referenced on CNBC for his Zulu Principle; the story goes that Jim’s wife was reading on article on Zulus, an ethnic group in South Africa, in Reader’s Digest. It dawned on Jim that if his wife had gone to the library and borrowed as all the literature she could find and then flown to South Africa and lived among the villagers, in a short time, she could easily have gone on to become the world’s leading experts on the subject.

His point was to gain a competitive edge by specializing in small high-growth small companies typically ignored by larger institutions; similar to what Warren Buffett once said:

Invest within your circle of competence, it’s not how big the circle that counts, it’s how you define the parameters.

Among other things, Jim suggests:

1. The dividend yield must be at least 4%.
2. Equity earnings must have increased in at least four out of the last five years.
3. Equity earnings must have at least doubled over the last four years.
4. The latest Chairman’s statement must be optimistic.
5. The company must be in a reasonably liquid position.
6. The company must not be vulnerable to exceptional factors.
7. The shares must have a reasonable asset value.
8. The company should not be family controlled.
9. The shares should have votes.

Source

One of the biggest news of the day is that NY crude oil has hit a new high to $113.93 as a result of the weak dollar and tightening energy supplies. Additionally, OPEC announced that it would not change its 2008 estimate of growth in world oil demand.