Here is the schedule of speakers today the Ira Sohn conference

It's time for the 23rd annual Ira Sohn conference in New York. It's a charitable gathering of some of the biggest hedge fund titans. They will share their latest ideas.

Schedule via ZeroHedge:

  • 12:00-12:05 The Sohn Investment Conference Opening Remarks, Douglas Hirsch
  • 12:05-12:25: John Khoury Founder Long Pond Capital
  • 12:05-9:245: Li Ran - Half Sky Capital
  • 12:45-1:05 Jeffrey Gundlach - CEO Doubline Capital
  • 1:05-1:25 Chamath Palihapitya - Founder CEO social Capital LP
  • 1:25-2:05 Intermission
  • 2:05-2:25 Glen Kacher - Founder Light Street Capital
  • 2:25-2:45 Seth Stephens Davidowitz Visiting Lecturer at the Wharton School
  • 2:45-3:05 Scott Ferguson
  • 3:05-3:20 Sohn Special Guest: Bryan Fletcher and Gavin Shamis
  • 3:20-340 John Pfeffer - Partner Pfeffer Capital
  • 3:40-4:20 Intermission
  • 4:20-4:40 Bill Gurley with Chamath Palihapitya
  • 4:40-5:00 Larry Robbins - founder Glenview Capital Managment
  • 5:00-5:15 The Sohn Idea Contest Winner
  • 5:20-9:435 Nathaniel August - President Mangrove partners
  • 5:35-5:55 David Einhorn - President Greenlight Capital
  • 5:55-? Sohn Conference closing remarks Daniel Nir
  • 5:55-7:15 Cocktail Reception

I track these ideas each year and they're sketchy at best, especially in what has been a raging bull market.

Here's the recap from 2015 Sohn when David Einhorn made a fantastic call on shorting shale.

Back in 2016, Nick Danaher of Domando Capital Management said Tripadvisor is an easy double, and a possible multi-bagger but it's down 31% since he said that.

At the same conference, Stanley Druckenmiller said the stock bull market was exhausted and he was bullish on good.

Jeffrey Smith of Staboard Value argued for Depomed as an acquisition. It's down 57% since but his call for Westrock was a big winner, up 71% since.

David Einhorn had a pair trade that was short CAT and long GM. It's been a disaster.

A winner was Hyatt hotels, which was pitched by John Koury and is up 57% since. He's back this year (and pitching D.R. Horton).

One guy who was at the past two events and will be there again this year is Chamath Palihapitya. He gets a bit of heat because he's pitched some names that everyone knows. He touted Amazon in 2016 and it's up 126% since. Last year, he was all about Tesla but it's down 5.5% in the past year and the convertible bonds he pitched are flat and pay no yield.

2017 results

Debra Fine, Founder and President of Fine Capital Partners pitched Canada's DHX Media, it's down 34% since.

Bill Ackman went back to real estate with a call for Howard Hughes. It was down for most of the year but is up 8% after a strong March.

Keith Meister recommended CenturyLink but it's down 27% since.

The best call was a Frontier Communication short from Josh Resnick. It fell hard on the call but has continued to fall down to $8.21 from $44.00.

Brad Gerstner touted United Airlines but it's down 4%.

David Einhort touted Core Labs and it's up 8% since.

Solid picks were from Larry Robbins, who will be back this year. He touted DXC (+32%), FMC (+13%) and IQV (+18).

All and all, this is as big of a roll of the dice as randomly picking a stock. Unless you can be there live at the event and trade the pop on the recommendations more quickly than anyone, it's tough to make money. If you have to buy, look for someone with a solid case who touts value and good businesses without exaggerating.