After my trolling through 13Fs for the dream team, I decided to use the data, such that I would review all companies I have run across that have one member of the dream team owning it.  Beyond that, I looked at all companies that 2 or more members of the dream team own, and added to the list all companies that I have never heard of.  I did the same with my list of companies that I accumulate each quarter, and kept those that I had never heard of.  Here is the list of tickers:

A AAPL ABAX ABT ACGL ADBE ADP ADS ADSK AFL AGU AHL ALA ALR ALTR AMAT AMP ANR AON APA APEI ARCO ARRS ASEI ASH ASNA ASYS ATNI ATPG ATSG AVGO AVNW AVT AWH AXS BBBY BCE BCSI BDMS BGC BIDU BLT BLVN BRCM BRK/B BUD BVN CACH CACI CAH CBEY CBI CBT CEDC CELL CF CFK CIE CNQR COBK CODE CPB CPLCPS CPWR CPX CRL CSC CSCO CSGS CSX CTRP CTSH CVI CVS DAR DELL DEO DGIT DGX DIN DIOD DNB DOX DRIV EAG EBAY EDU EGY EMR ENH ENR ENTG ES ESRX ETFC EXP EXPE EXXI FCX FDX FFCO FICO FISV FLS FO FSR FVE GD GEN GIB GKSR GLRE GOOG GS HAL HCKT HFC HHC HNT HOLX HRC HRS HS HTZ IART IM IN INFA INXN IR ITT JOYG KAR KEG KFT KR KRA KRNY KW LH LIFE LLL LORL LTXC LYB MA MANH MASI MCK MCO MDCI MHS MOS MRH MSFT MSI MUR MUSA MWK MYL NAB NEWP NFLX NIHD NLY NOA NOK NSR NTAP NXPI OCR OMI OSHC OTEX PBH PCLN PCS PDCO PG PGR PLL POT PRE PT PTP PWER QCOM QSFT QUAD RBCN REIS RES RGS RIMM RJF RMD RNR RRC RRR RTN SD SHEN SHO SI SIGI SLE SMG SNDK SNPS SODA SOHU SPMD ST STLY SUN SVN SXC SYKE SYMC SYNA SYY T TAP TDC TDG TE TEL TEVA TGS THRX TLW TMO TNDM TRCR TUP TWI UPL USB UTX V VECO VOLC VRSN VRX WAG WBSN WDC WFR WFT WHR WLT WMB WOOF WST XO XOM XRAY XRS YHOO YOKU

Some friends of mine asked me if I could create an insurance-centric hedge fund.  I said that it was unlikely because I’m not good at shorting.  They pressed me on it, because they knew if I had good longs, with my quantitative skills, I could create a credible short position that might hedge the longs.

Ugh.  I don’t want to do it, but maybe I could make this work.  I certainly could use the revenue.  So what would I focus on in such a fund?

• Relative valuations
• Management quality
• Reserve releases/strengthening from prior year claims
• Momentum — yeh, momentum.
• Long-term underwriting profitability

My goal is to make money for average people, not the wealthy, but if that is the only way that my firm can survive, I will set up a hedge fund in the insurance space.  I love insurance; I know it intuitively, but I know that once I  begin to take big bets, I may fail badly.

If you know me well, you know that I only take prudent risks.  I’m not risk-averse, I like taking risks when the odds are in my favor.

So I am puzzled at this point.  I have done better in evaluating the broad markets than the narrow insurance markets, but if I have to be a narrow investor in order to survive, I can do that.

If you have advice for me here, I will receive it with thanks.