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Key Observations from Our Proprietary Survey of Independent Jewelery Retailers

November 22nd, 2010

We recently conducted a survey of approximately 20 independent specialty jeweler retailers. The purpose of our survey was to: Gain greater insight on sales trends in the first few weeks of the holiday season Determine how independent...

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PAA Research SMId Cap Portfolio Update - 1Q10 Gain of 8.8%, Closing out Long SIG/Short NILE Pair Trade With a 35% Gain

April 1st, 2010

We wanted to provide you with an update on the performance of our SMid Cap portfolio, which we introduced on 9/3/09.  As a reminder this is a “mock” portfolio with an initial value of $100...

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Insider Selling at NILE Continues, Company Enters Settlement Discussions with Diascience Corp. (aka Yehuda Diamonds)

March 12th, 2010

This report was originally published on 1/7/10.We wanted to highlight a few noteworthy developments related to our pair trade recommendation of long SIG/short NILE (55.39 ↓0.40%).  First, we wanted...

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Channel Checks With Independent Jewelers Indicate Trends Might Not Be As Bad as the Zales November Comp Would Have You...

March 11th, 2010

This report was originally published on 12/16/09.Shares of SIG (29.54 ↓0.94%) have pulled back in the past 10-days following ZLC (3.03↓6.19%)’s 10-Q filing, in which Zale’s reported...

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An Update on Blue Nile’s “Operating Margin Conundrum” and Thoughts on Upcoming 3Q09 Results

March 11th, 2010

This report was originally published on 11/4/09.We introduced a pair trade idea in June to go long Signet (SIG 29.49 ↓1.11%) Jewelers against a short position in Blue Nile (NILE 55 ↑0.22%).  Although we...

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The Blue Nile/Diascience Corp. (Yehuda Diamonds) Legal Battle Heats Up

March 11th, 2010

This report was originally published 11/2/09.In our original report on our pair trade idea: long Signet (SIG 29.43 ↓1.31%) Jewelers/shortBlue Nile (NILE 54.76 ↓0.22%), we highlighted the risk that a lawsuit against Blue Nile could pose to the...

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Signet Jewelers (SIG) Remains the Best Investment Vehicle in the Specialty Jewelery Space

March 10th, 2010

This report was originally published 9/9/09.SIG reported 2Q10 results this morning.  You can find the full press release here.  Overall, the company handily beat consensus expectations and the stock has reacted...

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Are Polished Diamond Prices About to Increase?

March 10th, 2010

This report was originally published 8/25/09.In a recent post on NILE (54.88 ↑1.95%), we discussed the primary fundamental short thesis on the stock, which included among other things the company’s “operating margin conundrum”.  In short, it is our view that...

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A Closer Look at Blue Nile’s Promotion Strategy and the Company’s Operating Margin Conundrum – The Fundamental...

March 10th, 2010

This report was originally published on 8/12/09.Approximately 6-weeks ago we introduced a pair trade recommendation Long Signet Jewelers/Short Blue Nile.  Thus far it has not yielded positive...

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Taking a Closer Look at Citi’s Blue Nile Upgrade and An Update on the Diascience Corp. Lawsuit

March 9th, 2010

This report was originally published on 7/16/09.NILE shares have rallied 17.9% in the past 5-trading days following a series of analyst upgrades from William Blair and Company and CitigroupInvestment Research. We wanted to...

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A Pair Trade with Some Sparkle – Long Signet Jewelers/Short Blue Nile

March 8th, 2010

This report was originally published on 6/25/09.Over the past few months there have been some nascent signs of stabilization in consumer spending. For the most part we have avoided the entire consumer sector during the recovery in the market over...

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Current Ideas

KNSL

SELL/SHORT

$230

FRPT

SELL/SHORT

$55

BYON

LONG

$70

EXPI

SELL/SHORT

$4

HUSQ.B

SELL

$50

UFPI

SELL/SHORT

$45

TREX

SHORT

$18

PRDO

SELL/SHORT

$5

STRA

SELL/SHORT

$42

CWH

LONG

$75

CM

SELL/SHORT

$50

RY

SELL/SHORT

$50

ARC

LONG

$5.50

AYI

SHORT

$50

BIG

SHORT

$28

WWE

LONG

$65

XOXO

LONG

$37

RLGY

PAIR TRADE

$10

RDFN

PAIR TRADE

$30

BCO

LONG

$35

ING.PA

SHORT

$35

TRUP

SELL/SHORT

$10

CTC

SHORT

$101

ATGE

SHORT

$15

HCG.TO

SHORT

$0

RON.TO

SHORT

$9

ESI

SHORT

$0

BGG

PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC

25%

TTC

PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC

25%

Z

SHORT

$14.00

NA.TO

SHORT

$22

ZU

SHORT

$15

TRLA

SHORT

$20

MCRS

SHORT

$31

APOL

SHORT

$35

OPEN

SHORT

$30

KNL

PAIR - LONG KNL/SHORT MLHR

25%

CSGP

SHORT

$100

GCA

LONG

$8

IPSU

LONG

$20

MLHR

SHORT

$22

LOOP

PAIR - LONG CSGP/SHORT LOOP

40%

THQI

LONG

$35

WPO

SHORT

$275

COCO

SHORT

$0

HNI

SIG

RGR