Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
by Mike Shedlock
I could site numerous statistics and numerous articles from numerous markets by people with far better credentials than Mr. Barsky, but as I said, it is normally not worth the time responding to such clowns.
OK, Mish, just why are YOU bothering?
Good question. You see I left off a couple snips from that article Barsky wrote. Let’s take a look at them:
Mr. Barsky writes: “I am now a money manager. I currently own stocks in several homebuilders; so I am putting my money where my mouth is.” The article concludes with “Mr. Barsky is managing partner of Alson Capital Partners, LLC”
What peaked my interest in Mr. Barsky is the following chart. It is a large chart of Toll Brothers Inc. Ownership. Take a look at the second line from the bottom to see what Alson Capital Partners, LLC is doing with TOL.
Let me see if I have this straight:
1) Mr. Barsky writes an article for the WSJ proclaiming there is no housing bubble.
2) Mr. Barsky calls housing bears “Chicken Littles.”
3) Mr. Barsky says, “I am putting my money where my mouth is.”
4) Mr. Barsky is managing partner of Alson Capital Partners, LLC.
5) Alson Capital Partners, LLC sold 896,680 shares of TOL in the first quarter of 2005. That was a decrease (at the time) of 28% of their original holding of 3,166,680 shares to 2,270,000 shares of TOL.
6) TOL reduced its shares in the second quarter by 448,340, to a total holding of 1,135,000 shares.
I am sure enquiring readers are wondering what happened to the other shares, since 1,135,000 plus 448,340 equals 1,583,340, not 2,270,000. Unfortunately, I have no answer to that question. At any rate, that is not relevant. What is relevant is that an original holding of 3,166,680 shares has now been reduced to 1,135,000 shares. This means that Alson Capital Partners, LLC has sold 64.2% of their holding of TOL (2,031,680 shares out of 3,166,680) in the first two quarters of this year.
Since there is a discrepancy in the numbers, it not clear precisely what percentage of TOL that Alson Capital Partners, LLC has been dumping. It does seem to be huge. What is clear is the fact that two sources show Alson Capital Partners, LLC dumping TOL while a managing partner of the corporation went out of his way to defend a housing bubble in a major publication. It is also clear that Mr. Barsky failed to disclose those facts while claiming to be putting his money where his mouth is.
Given the above, I have one question for Mr. Barsky: Is defending the housing bubble as you did consistent with Alson Capital Partners, LLC dumping huge percentages of its TOL holding?
[Ed. Note: Michael Shedlock (Mish) worked in the financial services industry for 20 years at some of the top institutions in the country including Harris Bank, the Bank of Montreal, Bank One, First National Bank of Chicago, and First Data Corp. Mish runs one of the more popular stock boards on the Motley Fool, Investment Analysis Clubs / Mishedlo and one of the more popular boards on Silicon Investor, Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis. You can see more of Mish’s writing on his blog also entitled Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis.
He is also a contributor to Whiskey and Gunpowder, a free e-newsletter, from Dan Denning and Byron King (among others) that covers resources, oil, geopolitics, military history, geology and personal freedom. To get your free subscription, click below:
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