RAM COMMENTARY

July 2009

Healthcare opportunities and sector rotation

"While we believe the proposed healthcare plan will have a significant impact on the overall industry, in recent weeks compromises have been made which should shift more power and influence away from the government and socialized medicine to the private sector which we view positively. This along with many other factors, and our extensive fundamental bottom-up research, has led us to uncover what we consider to be some extraordinary contrarian opportunities in this space.."

June 2009

Green Shoots or Brown Shoots?

"We are still extremely concerned about the state of the economy and the domestic equity markets. This recent 40% rally has been dominated by second and third tier companies that have rallied significantly more than the underlying indices. This is not a bad thing because it has created some very exciting opportunities to short companies that appear to be vulnerable."

May 2009

A No Win Situation

"We are becoming increasingly concerned that the fed is running out of ammunition and rates will continue to move up in the face of an aggressive government debt buyback program to push borrowing/mortgage rates down. The purpose of this program is to reduce borrowing costs to support an economic recovery, however, investors are starting to see the program for what it is and are demanding higher risk premiums."

April 2009

What is the real value of the Bank Stress Test?

"Banks are faced with a no win situation with the federal government and investors. The regulators are using a doomsday scenario to stress test the banks balance sheets when doomsday has already occurred. It’s kind of like calling the fire department after the building has been burnt to the ground."

March 2009

Defining The Conflict Of Interest: Are Investors And Managers Fully Aligned?

"Investors need to start asking a very key question: "Do you (the investment manager and/or employees) have the majority of your net worth invested in the fund where you want me to put my money? "The answer, of course, should be yes .Investors want and need to be in the same entity that the manager is using to calculate his/her composite returns."

February 2009

US Treasuries: Why We Should Be Terrified

"The government continues to run the currency printing presses and in the very near term this could have severe consequences. In our opinion, this fragile economy simply can't handle the strain of significantly higher long term interest rates."