Detailed info on the newly started monthly contest
Since starting Member Ideas feature back in November, I have received and posted a total of 20 special situation ideas from the members. Some of these have already worked out quite well and the others are still pending:
TCP International (TCPIF) – merger closed, 23% return in 2 months;
CanniMed Therapeutics (CMED.TO) – merger ongoing, 81% return so far;
NewStar Financial (NEWS) – transaction closed, 200% return expected on CVR;
AmBase (ABCP) – litigation ongoing, 61% return so far;
Virgin Australia (VAH.ASX) – record date passed, 20% return expected (max 1666 shares only);
Fortress Investment Group (FIG) – merger closed, 4% return in 1.5 months;
Associated Capital (AC) – split-off transaction closed, up to 17% return expected (depends on proration);
Abertis Infraestructuras (ABE.MC) – merger discussions ongoing, 4% return so far;
Pendrell (PCO) – reverse split implemented, 5% return (odd-lots only);
Thank you everyone for sharing investment ideas and for contributing to the site. I think this is working in the right direction towards my aim of building platform for quality special situation investment ideas curated by members. I would like to encourage further member contributions and reward for quality work – therefore Special Situation Investments will be starting a monthly contest.
Win $1,000 for sharing an investment idea!
Rules here are simple:
– Every month $1,000 will be allocated for the best investment idea(s) published by members on the site. Contest is open to members only.
– Only special situation type cases may apply – meaning some kind of corporate action, event driven and etc.
– Everyone willing to participate should send their ideas to [email protected] in the write-up ready style, with clearly articulated thesis, strong arguments and elaboration on risks and why the opportunity exists. A quick note on some 5% merger arbitrage spread with no further insights will not do. At the same time, word count is not important as long as above requirements are followed to full extent.
– Each member may contribute as many ideas as he/she wants;
– Do not be surprised if I will ask you to provide some additional input into write-up before publishing. This is not to act as bottleneck but rather to ensure higher quality of ideas and reduce level of noise. I will try to avoid judging the merits of the thesis and will focus on the quality of arguments and clarity of the write-up. I would love to be involved as little as possible in this part, so just share high quality stuff and all will be good!
– At the end of each the month I will arrange voting process. Each member will have one vote to allocate to his favorite idea. I will announce results after a week.
– IMPORTANT: Members and only members will decide who should get the prize money (I will have one vote like everyone else).
– Prize pot will be split between 1, 2 or 3 ideas, depending on the split of votes. E.g. if one idea collects overwhelming % of votes, then the contributor will receive the whole pot. I have not decided on the exact algorithm on splitting the pot and happy to hear suggestions on this.
– This contest will run as a trial for 3 months (March, April and May) and continuation afterwards will depend on member activity (both idea submission and voting) and received feedback.
– Also, if there are less than 5 member ideas submitted for the contest during the month then these ideas will be added to the next month’s batch and joined prize pot increased to $1,500. This is to ensure that there is sufficient selection to be able to reward high quality thesis.
Any comments, suggestions re. the contest are welcome.
Looking forward to receiving new investment ideas from you.