market folly

The 2018 Great Investors' Best Ideas (GIBI) Dallas Conference recently concluded with proceeds benefiting The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and the Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation.  Here's a brief summary of the event:


Great Investors Best Ideas Dallas Conference 2018


Lee Ainslie (Maverick Capital) talked with Lee Hobson (Highside Capital) about quantitative investing and utilizing its features to replicate various typical fundamental processes: screening companies, position sizing, data sets.  Maverick has been focused on the intersection of man and machine, instead of simply one versus the other.  Didn't pitch any individual names.  Maverick has launched four quant funds over the past few years that have higher turnover, in addition to their fundamental hedge fund.


Jim Grant (Grant's Interest Rate Observer):  Likes municipal closed end fund BlackRock Investment Quality Municipal Trust (BKN), says trading at 13% discount.  Also recommended shorting Matthews International (MATW) due to aggressive accounting, as well as fighting secular trends like the shift to cremation.


Ray Nixon Jr (Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss): Pitched General Electric (GE), sees valuation around $12 on a sum of the parts basis.  Obviously there's been a lot of volatility in this name.


Lisa Hess (SkyTop Capital): Bullish on the electric vehicle shift.  Pitched Sherritt International debt: 7.875% 2025, as well as Aumann in Germany, a copper coil play.  Also mentioned that Tesla (TSLA) is a religion, not a stock.


Michael Price (MFP Investors):  Bullish on AT&T (T) as well as Intel (INTC).


Marc Cohodes (Former Managing Director of Copper River Management):  Negative on MiMedx Group (MDXG).  Also mentioned Intec Pharma (NTEC) as a long.


Richard Mashaal (Senvest Management): Paramount Resources (Canadian E&P), sees a double or triple in next 1-1.5 years.  Cited increased production and hidden assets as reasons for bullishness, also thinks multiple could re-rate.


Ken Hersh (George W. Bush Presidential Center):  e-Sports is a huge business in early innings.  Sees 280 million fans going to 550 million in next 4-5 years.  Plays on the trend include Amazon (AMZN) due to their ownership of streaming platform Twitch, game maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI), and graphics card maker nVidia (NVDA).


Roger Staubach (Former Executive Chairman JLL Americas):  "Adversity reveals genius and prosperity conceals it."


Stay tuned in the next few weeks as we'll be covering a ton of investment conferences.