Last Chance For Substantial Discount to the Value Investing Congress

Just a reminder that this is your last chance to benefit from substantial savings for the Value Investing Congress. The event takes place on October 12th & 13th in New York City. Market Folly readers can save $1,700 with discount code N10MF6. Register in the next six days before the price increases by $400. Click here to receive the discount.

Also if you haven't heard, Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management has confirmed he will also be presenting investment ideas at the event. Here's the full list of hedge fund managers speaking:

- John Burbank (Passport Capital): Has returned 23.6% annualized. Predicted & profited from the subprime crisis.

- David Einhorn (Greenlight Capital): Has returned 22% annualized. Predicted the demise of Lehman Brothers & profited from it.

- Kyle Bass (Hayman Capital): Predicted both the subprime crisis as well as sovereign defaults.

- Bill Ackman (Pershing Square): Bought shares of General Growth Properties for around $0.40 and the stock now trades for more than $13 per share.

- Lee Ainslie (Maverick Capital): At the end of 2009, his hedge fund had returned 14.2% annualized since 1995.

Other speakers include Mohnish Pabrai, J. Carlo Cannell, Zeke Ashton, and Whitney Tilson.

Take advantage of the substantial discount while it lasts. The price increases in six days, so receive your discount to the Value Investing Congress.

Seth Klarman ~ Quote of the Week

For Market Folly's quote of the week this time around, we turn again to legendary investor Seth Klarman. To put this quotation in context, keep in mind that Klarman often holds a large amount of cash on hand for when opportunities arise. Below, he touches on the battle between human emotion and rational thinking:

"The overwhelming majority of people are comfortable with consensus, but successful investors tend to have a contrarian bent. Successful investors like stocks better when they’re going down. When you go to a department store or a supermarket, you like to buy merchandise on sale, but it doesn’t work that way in the stock market. In the stock market, people panic when stocks are going down, so they like them less when they should like them more. When prices go down, you shouldn’t panic, but it’s hard to control your emotions when you’re overextended, when you see your net worth drop in half and you worry that you won’t have enough money to pay for your kids’ college."

~ Seth Klarman

Since he brings up the notion of consensus views and so we want to make sure everyone had a chance to read this great piece outlining consensus versus variant perceptions in today's market. For more from the Baupost Group manager, check out Seth Klarman's recommended reading list as well as an in-depth profile of Klarman.

Lone Pine Capital Adds to Equinix (EQIX), Starts Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) Stake

Stephen Mandel's hedge fund Lone Pine Capital after the market close filed two separate 13G's with the SEC, both which reflect portfolio activity as of August 12th, 2010. Firstly, Lone Pine Capital has disclosed a 5.8% ownership stake in Equinix (EQIX) with 2,664,251 shares. As you'll see in our impending second quarter hedge fund update, Lone Pine started Equinix (EQIX) as a brand new position in Q2 and they owned 1,731,835 shares as of June 30th, 2010. In the month and a half that has elapsed since then, Lone Pine has increased its stake by almost 54%, adding 932,416 more shares. This portfolio activity comes after we saw Lone Pine add to its stake in Lincare Holdings (LNCR).

Secondly, Mandel's hedge fund has also disclosed a 5.6% ownership stake in Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) with 5,054,663 shares. This is a brand new position for the hedge fund. Lone Pine did not show a position in DKS as of June 30th, which means they could have built this position in Dick's Sporting Goods anytime over the past month and a half. However, they've obviously done some recent buying that took them over the regulatory threshold which required them to file the 13G with the SEC.

Taken from Google Finance, Equinix "provides global network neutral data center services. The Company operates 49 International Business Exchange (IBX) centers, or IBX data centers, across 18 markets in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific where customers directly interconnect with a networked ecosystem of partners and customers."

Dick's Sporting Goods is "a sporting goods retailer offering a range of brand name sporting goods equipment, apparel, and footwear in a specialty store environment. As of January 30, 2010, the Company operated 419 Dick’s Sporting Goods stores in 40 states and 91 Golf Galaxy stores in 31 states."

Click here to scroll through Lone Pine's investments that we've continuously updated.