Attack of the Hedgies

Today was held in the Frederick P. Rose Hall of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City the 15th Annual Ira Sohn Research Conference. This conference is the place for hedge fund managers to see and be seen and to give their take on the best way to make money in the upcoming year. This year's conference was not good news.

David Einhorn (upper left) of Greenlight Capital reiterated his opinion that in the great collapse of modern finance, the credit ratings agencies will be the next shoe to fall. At last year's conference, Einhorn announced that he was shorting Moody's and since that time Moody's stock has dropped 25% in value. Einhorn is still shorting the stock because he thinks it's not just going to go down a bit, but is set to totally collapse. Will in be the next big financial institution to come tumbling down? Stay tuned.

Bill Ackman (lower right) of Pershing Square Capital Management similarly repeated his view that the credit ratings agencies are broken and need massive overhaul. Anyone really believe Chris Dodd is going to accomplish that?

Daniel Arbess (lower left) of Perella Weinberg Partners helpfully informed the audience that the sun is setting on Western capitalism, and that the torch is passing to China. (Note to self: buy more Chinese stocks, consider learning Mandarin.) Granted, the West has been written off before.

Einhorn and Arbess are both making huge investments in gold. I don't totally know what this means, but it doesn't bode well.

The one positive thing from the event was David Tepper (upper right) of Appaloosa Management, predicted that Bank of America's stock, which today closed at $15.47 / share, would hit $27 / share. Maybe time to consider investing in Bank of America. That way, at least, when I get hit with their massive overdraft fees, I would have the consolation of knowing that I was really, in some way, just paying myself.

Eight other hedge fund managers also spoke, but I only had room for four in my picture, so if you want to know what the others said, you'll need to go look them up yourself.