No video this week. We have guests and other dogs with us for the holiday.The chart is YTD for the Legg Mason Value Trust (LMVTX) versus the S&P 500.You know the fund for its very long streak of beating the S&P 500. A look at the stale holdings on Yahoo Finance shows that it makes what I think are big bets and sometimes big bets do not work out.It has United Healthcare (UNH) which has a 4.45% weight after a 41% drop. The fund is overweight financials versus SPX and it has zero in energy. Zero?This is a good example of how actively managed funds can be problematic. A contrarian might have guessed that after a long run of outperformance the fund would lag. That makes sense. But the issue that ...

I am really gritting my teeth at this missed opportunity for Trina Solar (TSL) management to finally reward its shareholders... some of which have been sticking with (or around) them since last summer, only to be disappointed time after time. My long term thesis on this name has not changed, and I believe the 2nd half of the year will be explosive. It still trades at a huge discount to the group, which most likely is (a) management discount - a leadership team that loves to surprise us with new adventures that no one else in the group embarks upon - Wall Street however hates surprises and (b) potential dilutive equity offering to fund 2009 operations coming later in the year. While most people would be more concerned with (b), I am more concerned with (a). Last year they surprised the Street with a big annual ...