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Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 31-40 out of 62 results for "Muni Arb".

Inversionistas del Fondo Rochester de Oppenheimer Sufren Grandes Pérdidas por la Alta Concentración de Bonos Municipales de Puerto Rico

(Feb 2014)

Los inversionistas de bonos municipales de Puerto Rico sufrieron grandes pérdidas durante el año 2013. El gráfico 1 muestra un índice que abarca un amplio número de bonos municipales en los Estados Unidos (el Índice de Bonos Municipales S&P). Este gráfico también muestra un índice regional que se enfoca en bonos municipales de Puerto Rico (el Índice de Bonos Municipales puertorriqueños S&P). Entre los años 2000 y 2012, ambos índices presentaron movimientos muy similares. Sin embargo, durante...

High Concentration in Puerto Rico Municipal Bonds Results in Losses for Investors in Oppenheimer Rochester Funds

(Feb 2014)

2013 was a tough year for investors in Puerto Rican municipal bonds. Figure 1 shows a broad index of U.S. municipal bonds--the S&P Municipal Bond Index--and a regional index focusing on Puerto Rican municipal bonds--the S&P Municipal Bond Puerto Rico Index. While both indexes moved in tandem from 2000 until 2012, the Puerto Rico index shows a much sharper drop in 2013 as the island's economy continued its prolonged contraction. Puerto Rico's 2012 GDP was 12% below its 2006 GDP, according to...

Further Reckoning of UBS Willow Fund's CDS Losses

(Feb 2014)

In previous blog posts we explained how the UBS Willow Fund completed its spectacular multi-year collapse in 2012 largely as a result of its leveraged portfolio of credit default swap (CDS) contracts. See Credit Default Swaps on Steroids: UBS's Willow Fund and Willow Fund's Hedging, Investing and Speculating in Distressed Debt With Credit Default Swaps. Through these CDS contracts, the Willow Fund made a large, highly-leveraged short bet on credit risk contrary to its repeated SEC...

Willow Fund's Hedging, Investing and Speculating in Distressed Debt With Credit Default Swaps

(Jan 2014)

In a recent post we demonstrated how the Willow Fund's purchase of credit default swaps evolved from hedging a portion of its distressed debt to swamping the portfolio with enormous short positions in distressed debt. In this post, we explain why the Willow Fund's use of credit default swaps was inconsistent with its repeated disclosures that:
... The Fund may use a variety of special investment techniques to hedge a portion of its investment portfolio against various risks or other factors...

Did UBS Charge its Proprietary Puerto Rico Bond Funds Excessive Markups? Part II

(Jan 2014)

We have previously posted several blog posts about UBS Puerto Rico's collapsing closed-end municipal bond funds including: Trouble in Paradise: UBS Puerto Rico Bond Fund Investors Hit Hard, Diversification and UBS Puerto Rico Bond Fund Losses, Did UBS Charge its Proprietary Puerto Rico Bond Funds Excessive Markups? and Merry Christmas from UBS Asset Managers of Puerto Rico.

UBS has argued that since we couldn't identify which trades in the EMMA data were the UBS bond fund trades and UBS...

¿Acaso UBS Cobró Márgenes Excesivos a Sus Propios Fondos de Bonos de Puerto Rico? Segunda Parte

(Jan 2014)

Anteriormente habíamos publicado varias entradas en nuestro blog acerca del colapso de los bonos municipales de UBS Puerto Rico: Peligro en la Isla del Encanto: Inversionistas de UBS Puerto Rico Sufren Cuantiosas Pérdidas, Diversificación y Pérdidas en los Fondos de Bonos de UBS Puerto Rico, ¿Acaso UBS cobró márgenes excesivos a sus propios Fondos de Bonos de Puerto Rico? y Feliz Navidad de parte de UBS Asset Managers de Puerto Rico.

UBS ha argumentado que no debemos especular si UBS cobró o...

Diversification and UBS Puerto Rico Bond Fund Losses

(Dec 2013)

The 19 closed-end bond funds managed by UBS Puerto Rico listed in Table 1 lost $1.66 billion in the first 9 months of 2013. These funds were sold almost exclusively to citizens of Puerto Rico and approximately 70% of the portfolios of these funds were invested in Puerto Rican securities. The percentage losses over the past year range from 38% to 48% for the worst-performing UBS PR funds. These losses are substantially greater than Puerto Rican municipal bonds generally. The Standard and...

Diversificación y Pérdidas de los Fondos de Bonos de UBS Puerto Rico

(Dec 2013)

Los 19 fondos cerrados de bonos administrados por UBS Puerto Rico presentados en la Tabla 1 registraron pérdidas de $1.66 billones de dólares durante los primeros 9 meses del año 2013. Estos fondos fueron vendidos casi exclusivamente a ciudadanos de Puerto Rico y aproximadamente el 70% de las carteras de estos fondos se invirtieron en títulos Puertorriqueños. En el último año, las pérdidas de los fondos de UBS PR con peor desempeño fluctuaron entre un 38% y 48%. En general, estas pérdidas...

A Look Into the TIC Industry

(Oct 2013)

So far, we've discussed some of the concerns we have with TIC investments and shown how to use discounted cash flow analysis to value a TIC interest with our handy spreadsheet. But you might be asking, just how prevalent are these concerns across all TICs?

To answer that, we examined 194 sets of offering documents for TICs sold from 2004-2009. This totaled $2.2 billion in equity, which amounts to approximately 19% of all equity issued by TICs in that period, and included properties from 32...

Trouble in Paradise: UBS Puerto Rico Bond Fund Investors Hit Hard

(Oct 2013)

Despite a 2012 settlement agreement with the SEC, UBS Puerto Rico continues to face new allegations regarding its sales practices of tax-advantaged closed-end funds. While UBS Puerto Rico did not admit wrongdoing when it settled with the SEC, an SEC statement on the matter said "UBS Puerto Rico denied its closed-end fund customers [...] accurate price and liquidity information, and a trading desk that did not advantage UBS's trades over those of its customers." At the time of the SEC...

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