Nat Worden

A New Threat to the Financial Industry's Status Quo

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:47 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- SigFig, a new online service for retail investors, appears to make real strides toward bringing a level of transparency to the financial industry that has been sorely lacking. SigFig's founders aim to turn trickle of investors choosing independent, lower-cost advisers into a flood.

The rise of the Internet has been a boon for consumers in so many ways, but when it comes to the financial industry, the fruits of the digital revolution have been slow to ripen. There is still little pricing transparency in the industry, and people with limited financial acumen often struggle to find credible information they can rely on to make intelligent decisions about managing their money. ...

Rethink Groupthink: Sheep Get Slaughtered

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:00 GMT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- When push comes to shove, the vast majority of investors -- professional and otherwise -- tend to stick with the herd. As a result, statistics show that the long-term performance of most investors tends to be mediocre at best.

Truly independent thinking is a rare commodity on Wall Street and everywhere else. What's more, the explosion of 24-7 media consumption threatens to fuel more groupthink, which can have disastrous results.

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Netflix: Great Company, Bad Investment

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:00 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Last year was painful for Netflix shareholders, and 2012 isn't shaping up very well either. Last summer, shares of the online video company traded mostly over $250, reaching the $300-mark at one point. Less than a year later, the stock has lost well over half its value, trading below $100 despite a healthy gain for major stock indices during that time-frame. The latest selloff, in response to its first-quarter earnings release on Monday afternoon, sent the price below $90.

Not surprisingly, Netflix doesn't appear to be encouraging much participation in its annual shareholders' meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Friday, June 1 at the company's headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif....

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Profit and Help Children: A Win-Win Event

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:37 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Want to hear hot tips from some of the greatest investors in the world? Do you also want to support cancer research and help children suffering from devastating illnesses? Sign up to attend the 2012 Ira Sohn Conference, which takes place on May 16 at Lincoln Center in New York City. It's not too late.

The animal spirits of capitalism typically don't mix well with the selfless altruism of charity, but the annual Ira Sohn Conference is one shining exception to that rule. For as little as a $1,500 tax-deductible donation, anyone can attend the event and hear the latest investment ideas from the likes of Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn and Pershing Square Capital's Bill Ackman presented in detail. ...

Proxy Voting in the Digital Age

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:58 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Do you own stock in a company that is holding its annual shareholders' meeting this spring at a place or time that doesn't fit your schedule? Visit the investor relations page of the company's Web site and see if it will be webcasting the event. If not, fire off an email complaint to the firm's investor relations contact or take to your favorite social media network to demand a webcast.

The Securities and Exchange Commission currently doesn't require companies to webcast their annual meetings, but many public companies are doing this, and all of them should. In the digital age, there is no reason why shareholders should have to be physically present at their company's annual meetings to monitor what goes on and participate. ...

Why You Should Not Miss Shareholders' Meetings

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:30 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- We're in the middle of corporate America's proxy season, a time when the top executives of the world's largest companies -- and their boards of directors-- are expected to appear in front of shareholders at annual meetings and take questions. Sometimes, heaven forbid, they even take criticism.

These events are often ignored by investors and the media, unless there's some high-profile proxy vote or showdown taking place. That's a shame, because annual shareholders' meetings are a rare and important opportunity for shareholders to size up the companies they own and the executives that are running them....

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401(k): Don't Ignore the Fees

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:53 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Interested in learning more about the fees that are coming out of your 401(k) retirement savings account?

The good news is that the Department of Labor is imposing new rules soon requiring Wall Street firms to provide more transparency about the fees they charge employers and their workers on 401(k) accounts. ...

Why Apple Shareholders Should Hope for a Selloff

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:23 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Apple's announcement of a share repurchasing program means that long-term holders of the stock shouldn't mind if its recent spectacular run ends in a sell-off soon. Actually, they should hope that it does.

When I purchased shares of Apple last fall, I wasn't betting that the stock would be up 60% just six months later. Rather, I was investing in the accuracy of two observations I was making at the time. ...

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The Web's Gift to Consumers

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:30 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- No, the video above is not from Saturday Night Live. It's an advertisement for a real start-up company that has raised $1.1 million in funding from some gold-plated names in the venture capital industry, like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Forerunner Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. ...

Facing Walls of Worry, Market Looks Reasonable

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:00 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- We've now seen earnings results from the vast majority of companies in the S&P 500 for the fourth quarter of 2011, and the overall results show the first real slowdown in growth that has been recorded in years.

After eight consecutive quarters of double-digit earnings growth for companies in the S&P 500, growth in the fourth quarter of last year slowed to 6.1% as of Friday, according to FactSet. If results from Apple and AIG are excluded from the calculation, growth nearly stalled at 1.1%....

Oscar's Financial Picture

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:00 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- I could sense desperation in the air on Sunday night as "The Academy" dusted off nine-time Oscar host Billy Crystal to take the stage once again at Hollywood's biggest awards ceremony in the house that he called "Chapter 11 Theater." It was the Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, of course. Actually, it's now apparently called the Hollywood & Highland Theater because Eastman Kodak (EKDKQ.PK) recently requested in bankruptcy court to remove its name from the iconic home of the Oscars on the grounds that it was no longer worth its $70 million-plus price tag.

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Good Luck Penney

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:33 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- I've always been annoyed when I'm shopping for a product that is priced one penny below a flat dollar amount, like $19.99. Does the seller honestly believe I'm dumb enough to look at the price tag and think I'm paying any less than 20 bucks? Is it really a good idea to try and dupe your customer into thinking they're paying less than they really are with such a transparent ploy?

Apparently, the answer is yes. Everywhere I go, I see this pricing strategy in action. Fly round-trip to Miami for just $49.99! Buy an iPad 2 for just $499.99! There is even a so-called "dollar store" chain called 99 Cents Only Stores , which is really sticking it to higher-cost rivals like Dollar General and Family Dollar . Back in 2008, they announced raising their top price point for the first time in 26 years from 99 cents to 99.99 cents -- perhaps the most irritating move in the history of retail. ...

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Election Stocks: The Big Winners

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:00 GMT

The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Investors are all too often their own worst enemies, and one common way this manifests itself is through political bias.

In the run-up to the reelection of President George W. Bush in 2004, die-hard Democrats were too willing to ignore or deny the economic expansion that was under way because they were anxious to see the incumbent lose his job. These emotions probably led some investors to miss out on the full benefits of the bull market that was under way then, and the same is true in 2012. Staunch Republicans accuse President Obama of leading the country down the road to ruin even as the S&P 500 has essentially doubled from the lows it made shortly after the Democrat took office -- an epic rally by historical standards....

Cable Stocks: Time to Look at the Big Picture

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:00 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Cable stocks are often overlooked for a variety of reasons. For one thing, people tend to associate their cable provider with rising prices and bad customer service, and no one likes to get their monthly cable bill. Moreover, cable technology -- the big, ugly set top boxes, the annoying remote controls and the antiquated user interfaces -- is like a wet blanket in comparison to the warm and fuzzy feeling we get when using Apple's gadgets or Web sites like Amazon, Google or Netflix.

And what about cord-cutting -- the possibility that we could drop cable TV altogether and use online video sources for our information and entertainment needs? This threat has weighed on cable stocks and garnered widespread attention, but so far, it only seems to be happening on the margins -- particularly among young technophiles and penny-pinching types who don't watch sports....

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Old Media's New Financial Story

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:18 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Skim a glossy trade publication about the TV business and you may see that Fox Broadcasting's coverage of Sunday's NFC Championship football game drew the industry's largest audience last week, while Fox's "American Idol" took the crown for non-sports programming and CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" was the top scripted show.

Interesting, perhaps, but this information has little value for investors. The real financial story about TV if you step back and look at the big picture is that audience and advertising revenue growth is fizzling out. Overall TV viewership is still increasing, according to TVbyTheNumbers.com co-founder Bill Gorman, but primetime audiences for broadcast networks have been shrinking by roughly 5% for years now. Viewers have largely been migrating to cable, where there are many more channels, resulting generally in smaller audiences....

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Facebook: Great Site, So-So Stock

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:00 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It looks as though 2012 will be the year Facebook finally becomes a public company. I don't expect to be a buyer of the shares if current expectations prove correct, but sitting on the sidelines and just watching the spectacle will not be easy.

First off, anyone who has been following the digital revolution in media will be anxious to get a glimpse behind the curtain at the company's official financial results to get a better sense of its growth trajectory and its profitability. Like Google and other Web companies that came before it, Facebook has harnessed the unique power of the Internet to suck up a massive amount of advertising dollars. ...

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O Canada! My Capital I Allocate to Thee

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:30 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. investors are looking elsewhere for opportunities amid rising concerns about the country's debt burden, which recently reached the equivalent of $120,000 for every individual American when public and private nonfinancial debt is combined. Meanwhile, Europe is mired in its own debt crisis -- and probably sinking into recession -- and growth in China is slowing as some fear structural problems are developing there as well.

If only there was a stable, developed country that was easily accessible to investors and that wasn't mired in debt -- and that had a healthy banking system, a credible regulatory structure, a rich bounty of natural resources and a maniacal obsession with the sport of ice hockey. Such a place sounds too good to be true, but not if you consider our friendly neighbor to the north -- Canada....

Make Journalism Your Charity: Opinion

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:59 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program. "If the broad light of day could be let in upon men's actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects." -- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Tired of watching your investment portfolio get ravaged by systemic banking crises? Worried about the national debt, the rise of poverty, the decline of education or the degradation of the environment? Do you think our health care system is screwed up or that our democratic institutions have been corrupted?

The holidays are a time of giving, and the U.S. tax code allows taxpayers to deduct charitable contributions, providing an incentive for people to make annual donations to causes they deem worthy. ...

Amazon: Compensation That Works

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:30 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Amazon, the online retail giant, is famous for ignoring the quarterly conflagrations of Wall Street's noise machine and investing in its business to build long-term value. As a result, its stock price has been volatile, making it a dangerous bet for momentum traders.

But for the long-term investor, Amazon has been a star in an era widely characterized as a "Lost Decade" for stocks. Its growth has far outpaced the broader e-commerce sector, and its stock price has more than quadrupled since the S&P 500 topped out at the height of the tech bubble in 2000. The S&P, by comparison, has lost a fifth of its value since then....

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Evaluating a Stock: Compensation and Governance Matters

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:30 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The recent parade of corporate chiefs rewarded with vast riches in return for abysmal failure has vaulted the debate over executive compensation practices and corporate governance into the arena of mainstream political discourse. But don't count on our broken politics to bring sensible policy solutions in this area. Discerning investors have long had some ability to protect themselves from these potential pitfalls.

After all, if you avoid owning stock in companies with spineless boards of directors and flawed compensation practices, then you will minimize your risk of having your investments plundered by management teams that are either incompetent or have misplaced priorities....

Don't Join Stock Market Exodus

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:00 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

Many Americans gave up on the stock market after the 2008 crash, and many more appear to be doing so now that the global debt crisis has sparked another roller-coaster ride on Wall Street.

By the end of October, investors had withdrawn over $83 billion from U.S.-based stock mutual funds in 2011-- more than double the withdrawals through the same period last year, according to the Investment Company Institute, a Washington-based trade group. These stock fund outflows -- largely from small investors -- continue a trend that has no precedent in the data, which go back through 1984. ...

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Apple Remains a Long-Term Star

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:00 GMT

The following commentary is from an investment professional with Clear Harbor Asset Management who is a participant in TheStreet's expert contributor program.

Perhaps my most memorable moment from the decade I spent as a beat reporter covering corporate America for various media outlets came about seven months ago when I received a surprise phone call from Steve Jobs.

I was in a deli on West 47th street when my cell phone rang, and I have to admit that I initially thought it was a joke when the gravelly voice on the line claimed to be that of the famous Apple co-founder. Then it occurred to me that I had a story in that day's Wall Street Journal about a previously unreported meeting in Silicon Valley between Jobs and the top executives of the cable TV industry -- which was my beat at the time -- and I should probably be taking the call more seriously. ...

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High Crude Oil Prices? It's the Fed, Stupid

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:10 GMT

The Federal Reserve plays a key role in the price of oil, but lawmakers and leading media outlets seem to be busy looking everywhere else for a way to explain sky-high gasoline prices to a frustrated American public.

Congress on Wednesday held its 40th hearing this year to explore the issue, but the low target interest rate maintained by the central bank was barely mentioned. At the same time, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his fellow central bankers elected to leave the central bank's fed funds rate target at just 2%, despite rising signs of inflation, for fear of hurting already weak economic growth.

Then on Thursday, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said the price of crude could go as high as $170 a barrel this summer due to the weak dollar, while debate in the media largely has centered on the role of speculators vs. supply and demand in driving up prices. The effects of monetary policy on the value of the dollar and market forces was almost totally ignored. ...

Fed Holds Rates at 2%

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:41 GMT

Updated from 3:09 p.m. EDT

The Federal Reserve made no change to its key interest rate target Wednesday, electing not to combat rising signs of inflation as the U.S. economy and financial system remain fragile in the midst of the housing and credit crunch.

As expected, the central bankers left the federal funds rate target at 2%, having lowered it by 325 basis points since last fall in hopes of stimulating a slowing economy and cushioning the effects of financial turmoil on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average received a modest boost from the decision. ...

Politics May Crimp Fed's Inflation Fight

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:59 GMT

While soaring oil prices have the markets buzzing about inflation, the Federal Reserve is poised to talk tough and take no action this week.

The stance reflects Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's longstanding hope that oil prices will stop hurtling skyward and that inflation pressures will fade, but some investors are growing impatient with that mantra.

"At the Fed, they do all sorts of mental gymnastics to try to make it appear that whatever is going up in price has nothing to do with too much money being printed or rates being too low," says Bill Fleckenstein, president of Fleckenstein Capital and author of Greenspan's Bubble: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve. "They have demonstrated with their actions that they have one concern and one concern only -- stimulating economic activity." ...

Coming Week: Don't Count on the Fed

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:37 GMT

Stocks will limp into the next week at levels not seen since the Bear Stearns debacle, with no hope of a boost from the Federal Reserve.

Oil and other commodity prices rallied again last week while credit conditions worsened on Wall Street and the dollar weakened further.

The Fed, which will release its June decision on interest rates Wednesday, will almost certainly hold steady, leaving investors to parse through its policy statements for any sign of what will come next. ...

World Bank Boosts China Growth Outlook

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:49 GMT

The World Bank lent some fresh hope to investors in the U.S. stock market on Thursday with an improved forecast for economic growth in China.

The Washington-based global financial institution raised its growth outlook for the Asian giant to 9.8% for 2008 from 9.4%, citing strong domestic demand and continued dominance in exports.

Wall Street welcomed the news, since overseas economies have helped U.S. multinationals muddle through the economic weakness at home amid the credit and housing crisis. ...

AIG Lending Unit Could Bring More Pain

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:15 GMT

American International Group's toxic ties to the secondary mortgage market may have cost CEO Martin Sullivan his job, but overlooked trouble brewing at a consumer lending unit could continue to weigh on the insurance giant.

AIG officials have noted that mortgage lender American General Finance, which the insurer acquired for $23 billion as the housing boom started to ramp up in 2001, has contributed to its recent problems. But despite AIG's insistence that American General's underwriting standards were conservative, a longtime branch manager in Southern California tells TheStreet.com a different story.

According to the source, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from his former employer, American General was aggressively involved in the predatory lending tactics and delinquent underwriting standards that led to financial disaster and a storm of public criticism at subprime mortgage giants like Countrywide Financial . ...

GE Slumps to Lowest Level in Four Years

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:39 GMT

With shares of General Electric hitting a four-year low on Monday, the drumbeat on Wall Street for a drastic restructuring at the industrial conglomerate is getting louder.

The stock was recently down 40 cents, or 1.4%, to $28.75. Earlier, it slipped as low as $28.46 after JPMorgan analyst C. Stephen Tusa Jr. cut GE to neutral from overweight, according to a research note to investors.

"In an environment in which hitting numbers was religion, managers are paid to make the plan whatever way they can, and misses are not excused," Tusa said about the culture at GE. "This may create a situation that lends itself to putting off the bad news to see if something opens up, a risky way to operate with investors, especially in a more challenging environment." ...

Gas Spike Not Bleeding Into Rest of CPI

twocents@thestreet.com (Nat Worden) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:54 GMT

The inflation rate hit its fastest clip in six months in May, but the government's report on consumer prices on Friday also showed that soaring food and energy prices aren't spilling over into other areas.

The Labor Department reported that its consumer price index rose by 0.6% last month, its biggest jump since last November. Gasoline prices surged by 5.7%, while food prices were up 0.3%.

Excluding food and energy, the core reading of the consumer price index showed an increase of only 0.2% in May, suggesting that the relentless rise in commodity prices had yet to stoke widespread inflation. ...