market folly

In an amended 13G filed with the SEC, we see that David Gallo's hedge fund Valinor Management has updated their stake in DSW Inc (DSW). The filing was made due to activity on December 31st, 2009 and Valinor now owns a 6.5% ownership stake in DSW with 1,068,230 aggregate shares owned. This represents a 33.5% reduction in their position (540,470 shares) as they previously owned an aggregate of 1,608,700 shares per their last 13F filing which detailed holdings as of September 30th, 2009.

This is the first time we've covered Valinor so we wanted to provide a brief background. David Gallo founded Valinor after previously working at Roberto Mignone's Bridger Management, whom we've also covered on the site. Gallo received his MBA from Harvard Business School. And, a fun fact: hedge fund Valinor is named after the lands often inhabited by immortal souls from the books of J.R.R. Tolkien. Valinor Management is part of the Tiger Cub network of hedge funds (see the Tiger Cub family tree here) due to the previous relationship with Bridger. We'll continue to cover their portfolio movements from now on.

Taken from Google Finance, DSW is "a branded footwear specialty retailer. As of January 31, 2009, the Company operated 298 DSW stores in 37 states in the United States. The Company separates its merchandise into four categories: women’s footwear, men’s footwear, athletic footwear and accessories. It also offers a complementary assortment of handbags, hosiery and other accessories. The Company’s stores average approximately 23,000 square feet and carry approximately 27,000 pairs of shoes."