![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/amazing-earnings.jpg\" "\\"amazing-earnings\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nSeveral readers begged, “Say something about the GM IPO<\/em>.”<\/p>\n What’s the point? Most investors never got any. As with all hot IPOs, the underwriters doled it out to their favorite instutions — the ones who give them lots of business.<\/p>\n The favored institutions will “puke” their GM\u00a0 stock out as fast as their finger can hit the “Sell<\/strong>” button. No one plans to hold GM. It has too many problems and it’s more than fully priced.<\/p>\n A Wall Street friend called the GM IPO “the biggest market manipulation in history.”<\/p>\n OK. I’m annoyed that my tax monies bailed GM out and most investors didn’t get to make a quick buck puking it out. I scammed 250. Whoopee. I’ve never owned a GM car. Strange times.<\/p>\n Harry visits his Citigroup, now StepStone, private equity fund.<\/strong><\/span> I learn:<\/p>\n 1. As of end-September, I’m only losing 14% of my investment. For a 2006 fund that performance is “in line”, i.e. relative performance is good. That means compared to other funds and stocks. Absolute performance, of course,\u00a0 sucks.<\/p>\n 2. Despite the loss, StepStone (and before it Citigroup) is earning 2% each year on the money I committed. Not what I paid in or what it’s worth. But what I committed. That 2% turns out to be just under 3% of what it’s worth.<\/p>\n 3. Citigroup and my financial advisor at Citigroup (whoever he is) benefit by part of that management fee.\u00a0 I don’t know (yet) how fees break down. It seems\u00a0 wrong that my financial advisor (i.e. the Citigroup salesman) should continue to benefit financially from the lousy financial advice he gave me.<\/p>\n 4. Ultimately I’ll get my money back and maybe a little profit. But my 2006 fund will, by then, be a 2018 to 2021 fund. Maybe I’ll be alive then. Maybe.<\/p>\n Instead of holding for another 12 to 15 years, I could sell my investment. I’d get about 80% on the secondary market. But what better investment could I find to recoup my loss and do even better? There’s the rub?<\/p>\n Maybe gold? Maybe not. Since November 12, it’s been below its 200 day moving average. That’s not good.<\/p>\n Your health. Be obsessed. Please.<\/strong><\/span> A friend took his mole to an internist, who said it was OK. By the time he got to a dermatologist, a couple of years had passed and it was no longer a minor mole. It was melanoma, an especially aggressive cancer, now in his brain. Of all the health things you can safely mess with, your skin is not one of them. For more,\u00a0 read Wikipedia.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Smelling the roses.<\/strong><\/span> The clouds scampered across the sky as the sun set yesterday.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n