Category: General Commentary

Below you will find a link to a Google Sheet.

We have added cumulative/non cumulative as well as qualified/non-qualified to the sheet since we last gave you a peek at this sheet.

We are calling this sheet Version 12132019–obviously because that is todays date. There are 672 issues on the sheet and should include most all $25/share preferreds and baby bonds as well as some miscellaneous. There are some convertibles not here, nor illiquids as we can’t get reliable quotes on some of these issues.

TO USE THIS SHEET YOU NEED TO HAVE A GOOGLE ACCOUNT SO THAT WHEN YOU OPEN THE LINK BELOW IT WILL TRANSFER TO YOUR ACCOUNT.

YOU MUST THEN RENAME THE SHEET.

IF YOU DO NOT COPY AND RENAME YOU WILL BE USING THE MAIN MASTER SHEET. UNFORTUNATELY IF A BUNCH OF FOLKS DO THIS YOU WILL FIGHTING EACH OTHER (I.E. YOU DO A SORT–THEN SOMEONE ELSE DOES A DIFFERENT SORT–THEN A 3RD PERSON DOES ANOTHER–ALL AT THE SAME TIME–YOU WILL BE SEEING RESULTS OF OTHER FOLKS).

I am already working on the next VERSION, which I should have in a month. This means that a few new issues will be missing as I add a number of them every week (and I delete called issues).

Be aware that this spreadsheet has 3 separate sheets. I have ‘hidden’ 2 of them. The one showing is where you do the filtering parameters. If you want to make your own changes, after you copy the sheet, you can do so by going to View, Hidden Sheets, Alpha. The Alpha page is where you can make changes. I would strongly suggest not changing the sheet titled ‘list’.

If you try to make changes on the filter sheet it will break–just ‘undo’ to fix it.

Unless you are familiar with scripting etc and you fool around and break it bad–no problem, just come back and get a new copy.

Here is the sheet. Have fun.

As some of you may have read, or maybe I am the only one watching, the FED has announced giant sized REPO moves for the balance of the year.

I have been watching since September and the FED has done overnight repurchase agreements in the $50 to $75 billion area mostly–tossing in $15-$25 billion in 14 day repurchases agreements every 2 weeks.

Of course this is to provide liquidity to the banking system after a ‘blow out’ overnight lending rate spike of near 10% on September 15th.

Now we are 90 days later and the FED has announced they will be taking the the overnight operation to at least $150 billion. Yikes!!

I am of the thought now that this is all out on the table we will likely avert major issue—BUT there is a chance of a misstep–in particular in light of the fact that no one really seems to fully understand the market workings (certainly I don’t under stand it).

The point being is that we could see disruptions in the next 3 weeks–through the end of the year and no one should be surprised it something “breaks”.

The FED Statement of operations for the next month can be read here.

It is always disappointing to me to see the silliness of the marketplace in reaction to potential deals–such as trade deals.

We don’t do politics, at all, on the website, but for once I would like to see both stocks and bonds trade on fundamentals.

We have so-called ‘trade deals’ which move the markets and we have a FED that is being controlled by short term market movements. Then we have algorithms moving the market based on whatever key words are in the news

Early this morning we had a quiet market–both interest rates and stocks were off just a bit–nice and quiet just like we prefer. Then a tweet and a meeting at the Whitehouse on China sends market sharply higher. Stocks up 1% and interest rates up 7 basis points (9 basis points higher from earlier levels) on the day.

Now in the end it doesn’t matter too much to me–holding what I hold there isn’t much movement, but I do worry about movements in markets getting out of control–irrational exuberance–as these things eventually (who knows when) come home to roost with movements in the opposite direction.

Oh well I guess I should get used to it–it certainly seems like the new norm.

Tomorrow we will have the monthly employment report released.

I see that after a bit of a soft report in October with a 128,000 new job numbers the consensus for November is 180,000 new jobs.

ADP released a 67,000 non farm number for November on Wednesday–that is a damned sight lower than 180,000.

So we all know that these numbers are many times in conflict–and in the end, irrespective of what you believe, the marketplace takes the government report as the ‘official’ employment report, typically ignoring ADP.

One thing is almost certain–if ADP is correct we will likely see a sharp move lower in stocks and a 5-10 basis point move lower in the 10 year treasury–recession talk would be back on the table.

Of course my predictions are worth less than a cup of coffee–BUT just in case I am buckling up at 7:25 a.m. tomorrow.

We all know today will be pretty darned quiet as no one is doing much investment wise–except some of us that are addicted to some sort of market adrenalin fix.

Today we have to search a little harder for that ‘fix’. Maybe one of the most interesting items today is the B. Riley (RILY) baby bond ‘call’. The company is calling the RILYL 7.50% issue which is the only issue outstanding that is currently in the early redemption period.

B Riley has become a complicated company that operates in traditional financial markets as well as having ownership (or partial ownership) of various operating companies–sometimes to take advantage of operating losses. bebe Inc. , magicjack, themaven?? Do I smell an implosion if a recession ever comes??

We haven’t had the time to do a deep dive into B Rileys financials lately, but anytime I see a company that has debt of almost $800 million with total equity of $299 million I get highly suspicious – I am going to try to dissect this one sometime soon.

This weekend we will post the latest version of the Sortable Master Listing. Since we had originally posted an earlier version we have been tweaking some components and now will put out a version for readers to use if they so choose. This will require you make a copy for yourself–so you should have a google account if you want to use it.

I will then start working on the next version for everyone–I plan to post an updated version every month.