Re: Words of caution from Dischino...COMBA...D...
in response to
by
posted on
Oct 11, 2009 03:56PM
Dis, here is just one example for a microcap fund that participates at even lower marketcaps...fyi
DB
THE TURQUOISE MICROCAP STOCK FUND
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HISTORY & GENESIS OF THE FUND
The Turquoise Microcap Stock Fund .. was created with a principal focus on extremely small "microcap" companies (defined as market capitalizations of $3 million to $250 million) traded on three public markets: the NASDAQ Small Stock, the NASDAQ Bulletin Board, and the Pink Sheets. (A majority of companies in the Turquoise Microcap Stock Fund .. are anticipated to have market equity capitalizations of $3 million to $50 million.) The firms traded on these markets typically do not have any consistent Wall Street security analyst coverage and many offer only limited news and financial disclosure to investors. This situation provides a unique opportunity for professional portfolio managers to discover hidden gems among the approximately 8,000 listed securities. Naturally, the risks are high as only about 1-3% of the companies evaluated were deemed worthy of consideration for investment in this fund given the various risk/reward parameters.
Although the core and majority holdings of the fund's investments will be microcap stocks, the portfolio manager may at times take investment positions in more traditional larger capitalization and better followed companies deemed to be "special situations". In particular, one class of attractive candidates for this category will be "fallen angels" (formerly highly regarded companies which have encountered a significant crisis event) which have announced the intention to implement clearly identified measures expected to be a catalyst for a successful turnaround (e.g. change in management or business strategy, settlement of litigation or investigation, etc.). Similarly, a related group will consist of recent Initial Public Offerings which have crashed and lost investor confidence (and eventually analyst coverage by the underwriting broker-dealers), but which appear to still offer favorable long term value once the reasons for the selloff are successfully resolved. A third category will include the occasional companies emerging from bankruptcy with a clean balance sheet, an attractive strategic business plan, and strong management. A final group will consist of unusual investment opportunities such as stocks of companies in emerging markets countries. (Note: these areas of investment candidates may constitute the strategy of a second TURQUOISE ASSET MANAGEMENT fund in the future as the Turquoise Special Situations Stock Fund .)
The initial concept for the Turquoise Microcap Stock Fund .was sparked by two articles in the Business section of the New York Times newspaper on Sunday January 23, 2005 (the fund was founded two months later following extensive research). The first article described the potential for discovering hidden opportunities among the thousands of companies which were delisted from the NASDAQ National Market System following the burst of the stock market "bubble" in the year 2000 for not meeting certain listing criteria (usually minimum market capitalization levels or minimum share price levels). Since that time, management of a small percentage of the companies which were delisted have effected successful turnarounds and are both growing and profitable (or at least on a clear path to profitability).