MODEL PORTFOLIO SEEKING ABSOLUTE RETURNS

Sound Advice 25th February 2009

The EquityBell Securities leveraged model portfolio was started on 27th January 2009 as

a paper trade with an initial value of £100,000.

The portfolio currently has an NAV of £100,073, up 0.07% in 30 days.

Leverage 3.11 times Only our most robust investment ideas will be placed into the portfolio explaining the

rationale, entry price with comments on reasons for holding and explanation of the exit

and price and net profit and loss.

Open trades Date Asset size FX price value margin Price

now value £ P/L

26/1/2009 June Gilt Future

Short 1 GBP 118.71 118,710 3000 120.78 120,780 -2,070

26/1/2009 MRW shares

Long £50k CFD’s

GBP 258.00 50,052 7,500 261 50,634 582

26/1/2009 SBRY shares

Short £50k CFD’s

GBP 309.75 -50,024

7,500 312 -50,388

-363

26/1/2009 Carrefour shares

Long €50k CFD’s

EUR 26.495 50,341 7,000 26.83 50,977 567

26/1/2009 LVMH shares

Short €50k CFD’s

EUR 43.42 -50,367

7,000 46.24 -53,638

-2,917

25/2/2009 EURUSD FX

Short EUR 100k

1.2786 88,152 1,763 1.2769 89,301 119

Closed trades Date Asset size FX price £ value margin Exit

date Exit price

£ P/L taken

26/1/2009 EURJPY FX

Short EUR 100k

118.606 92,988 2,800 02/02/2009

113.35

4,155

THIS IS A MARKETING COMMUNICATION Intended for information only and should not be construed as an invitation or offer to buy or sell any investment vehicle or

instrument. This note has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research; and is not subject to any prohibition on dealing ahead of the dissemination of this

marketing note. EquityBell Securities will provide extra detail on data or graphs used in this note upon requested.

Starting Value £100,000

Portfolio NAV £100,073

Profit £73 +0.07%

Current Positions

FX

Short €100k EURUSD @

1.2786

Commodities

None

Fixed Income

Short June 10 yr Gilt Future

Equities

Food Retail Spread

Long Morrison CFD 258p

Short Sainsbury CFD

309.75p

Luxury/Staple Spread

Long Carrefour

CFD @ €26.495

Short LVMH

CFD @ €43.42

EquityBell Securities was set up in October 2008 by a collective of seasoned market professionals to provide outstanding investment advice to clients running non-discretionary portfolios through direct market access

brokers and wealth managers. The credo is absolute returns by giving sound advice in asset classes that are individually appropriate to the risk appetite and base currency of each particular client.

MODEL PORTFOLIO SEEKING ABSOLUTE RETURNS

Sound Advice 25th February 2009

FX

Much has been made of levels of public sector net debt verses external debt levels. Commentators got very worried that 3Q08 UK external debt was reported by the UK Office of National Statistics at £5.97 trillion, where GDP was £1.4 trillion and public sector net debt at £697 billion.

Country Public Sector

Net Debt

Public Debt

per Worker

GDP External

Debt

External Debt

per Worker

External Debt

as a % of GDP

UK $987 bil $33,616 $2.05 tril $8.45 tril $287,957 412%

USA $10.6 tril $73,611 $14.58 tril $13.63 tril $94,444 93%

Japan $8.4 tril $132,300 $6.0 tril $2.32 tril $36,825 39%

France $1.35 tril $48,300 $2.1 tril $4.58 tril $163,889 218%

Germany $1.86 tril $45,588 $3.65 tril $4.85 tril $118,978 133%

Source: BoE, ONS, US Fed, BdF, Bundesbank and MoF

The extraordinarily high level of UK external debt was explained as hedge fund and bank investment leverage, particularly on the JPY carry trade (where JPY is borrowed at low rate and converted into another currency to trade). As hedge funds met redemptions and trading books reduced risk, large portions of this borrowing has been retired. This huge JPY buying and USD and GBP deleverage selling has seen the JPY rally while depressing GBP and USD. As the lion’s share of the unwind has happened, the JPY can now weaken from overbought and USD and GBP strengthen from over sold. Britain’s relatively low level of public sector net debt per worker (compared to Japan) suggests that UK government has a vast amount of room to borrow and print more money to stimulate the UK economy which will not be good for GBP. Our greatest concern is the EUR and the scale of bank lending. Peripheral Europe (Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria and the former Soviet states) have vast lending and fading economies. France and Germany do not have the political will to effectively help, even if they did have the cash (which they don’t) and the ECB has no established rescue mechanism. Current prospects for the EUR look worse than the USD and GBP. Therefore we suggest selling EURUSD at 1.2786 with a target somewhere close to 1.2000 and a stop limit of 1.3089

Commodities

Gold has rallied strongly from a low of US$682 per ounce on 24 Oct 2008 to 1,006 on Friday 20

th Feb

2009 (up 47%). Given that this financial crisis is truly global for the first time ever and gold is the currency of fear, we see long term gains for gold beyond US$1,000 per ounce. We continue to pursue a suitable entry price, which we have currently set at US$934 for 50 ounces.

MODEL PORTFOLIO SEEKING ABSOLUTE RETURNS

Sound Advice 25th February 2009

Fixed Income The global bond market is double the size of the equity markets and is the key indicator of investor sentiment. The chart below shows 10 year US Treasury note yield since 1962 and also from August 2008, revealing just how low current rates are.

Yields bottomed at 2% on year end buying and have since risen, despite the decline in the equity markets. If fear drives investors into bonds at these appalling yields because there is nothing better to buy, the stock market is in deep trouble. In the longer term, the US, UK and European governments and corporate will need to raise irresponsibly vast amounts of money to credibly fight deflation which will eventually push up long end rates in a steep yield curve. That may not happen until the green shoots of recovery are showing and that could be a while. Until we see yields rising as investors prepare to switch to shares as deflation fears subside, we cannot start buying equity markets with conviction. If yields do start dropping to the year end levels we suggest cutting the short 1 contract of the FLGM9 June UK Long Gilt Bond futures with a stop loss price of 122.0

Equities We are at a critical juncture in equity markets with the Obama /Bernanke rhetoric fighting deflation and a possible European banking crisis. Markets never go down in a straight line and we have been expecting a bear market rally to take the S&P500 back to 1,050 and the FTSE back to 4,500. With high valuations and poor economics we are struggling to find any basis in reason to tempt investors back into equities except hope that the stimulus packages will work (which we don’t think they are nearly enough yet). On the next page is a chart of equity index performance following the ultimate peak of the market during a financial crisis caused by overburdening debt. We can directly compare how Wall Street 1929, Japan 1989, NASDAQ 2000 and the S&P500 pan out over the days as governments struggle to reflate economies. The consolidation has taken a while and we are at a critical juncture to see if this countertrend rally emerges as we first highlighted in our 8th Dec 2008 “Clear as a Bell” report and we see the probability as fast diminishing.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

1962

1966

1970

1974

1978

1982

1986

1990

1994

1998

2002

2006

10 yr US Treasury Note yield currently very low

@ 2.83%

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

10 yr US Treasury Note yield currently very

low @ 2.83%

Data Source:

Yahoo Finance

MODEL S

Sound Advice

In meantime we have maintained our two bearish orientation spreads Food Retail Spread Morrison 261.00p on a 12.64 PE and a 1.92Sainsbury 312.00p on a 16.53 PE and a 4.06 The spread between Morrisons and Sainsbury as high as 76p. We continue suggest to run the position as Luxury/Staples Spread Carrefour €26.83 PE 9.94 and a 5.13% div yield, 2009 est EPS

LVMH price €46.24 PE 11.17 and a 3.49% div yield, 2009 est EPS

After the January good results from LVMH, th

continue to look bleak and LVMH is still more expensive than Carrefour, we

spread.

ODEL PORTFOLIOSEEKING ABSOLUTE RETURNS

25

In meantime we have maintained our two bearish orientation spreads

4 PE and a 1.92% div yield, 2009 est EPS 16.91p 4.06% div yield, 2009 est EPS 19.1p

The spread between Morrisons and Sainsbury is now 51p which is just below our initial level of 52p

suggest to run the position as Morrisons still appear better value than Sainsbury.

% div yield, 2009 est EPS €2.66

% div yield, 2009 est EPS €4.14

LVMH, the spread has converged. As prospects for the luxury

continue to look bleak and LVMH is still more expensive than Carrefour, we suggest to continue running

ORTFOLIO

25th February 2009

our initial level of 52p having been

pects for the luxury market

suggest to continue running the

Data Source:

Yahoo Finance

MODEL PORTFOLIO SEEKING ABSOLUTE RETURNS

Sound Advice 25th February 2009

Comment The world is in crisis. China and Japan have the highest current account surpluses in the world, but are highly leveraged to the Western consumer and have been hit hardest by the belt tightening. Asia needs to use its cash to adjust from an export led economy to domestic stimulus economy, to survive the inability of their traditional consumer base to buy their goods. The US and UK are doing their best to repair the banking system and to facilitate lending before too many cash starved companies go bust. If the Japan 1990’s model is anything to go by (remember they had huge personal savings that we don’t enjoy), Obama and Brown will need bigger and faster stimulus packages to inject “real” cash and create inflation soon. Peripheral Europe is teetering on the brink of an enormous banking crisis that will cause enormous political and social unrest and upheaval. The primary trend of equity markets is lower and we have long term targets of S&P500 at 400 and the FTSE100 at 2,000 over the next 18 months. With P/E ratios having not collapsed (and analysts still behind the curve), it is difficult for us recommend model portfolio positions to participate in a bear market rally based on little more than hope (even if they might run for 27%). It is always darkest before the dawn and news is bleak and sentiment about as bad as it gets, but equities remain above support (for now). Gold remains a long term favourite as a hedge against fiat currency quantitative easing and mistrust of the financial system, but appears overbought at present. Demand destruction in oil, lower industrial production and the desperate need of foreign capital by all of the oil producers should conspire to keep crude low for a while, despite platitudes of production cuts. The bond markets are the key confidence indicator. Watch the US Treasury 10 and 30 year yields and the UK Gilt yields for investors throwing in the towel and settling for very low returns as better than nothing or risking a loss on equities. It is very interesting to note the June 30 year US Treasury futures are trading over one point below the March futures (when they normally trade at a slight premium), implying that the market expects bond prices to be lower and yields higher in three months (which is a good sign). The 10 year US Treasury Note benchmark yield recently held above 2.70%, but any breach of 2.5% is a very bad signal for confidence. Conversely, any advance beyond the recent high of 3.05% is a good sign. We are seeking new positions to implement into the portfolio, but uncertainty and gloom casts a long shadow over the large amounts of cash that could be invested if market participants had any kind of confidence. Once we have a clearer picture of cash flows, we will make some new suggestions.

EquityBell Securities Quay House, 2 Admirals Way, Canary Wharf, London E14 9XG Tel: +44 (0) 20 3189 2108 www.equitybell.com

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