Most of the other alt managers are pretty near their 52-week highs. BN is not. Again, lots of potential explanations, and if it is back to its highs when the real estate cycle turns, the heavy CRE balance sheet exposure will probably be the best explanation. But if the market is skeptical of BN's quality of earnings, that could explain the divergence from the rest of the sector too.

ultimatespinach - your comments are starting to worry me! let's please dig deeper into he quality of earnings issue.

BN says "DE represents the deconsolidated earnings of the Corporation that are available for distribution to shareholders and it is our primary performance metric. DE is comprised of distributions we receive from our Asset Management, Insurance Solutions and our Operating Businesses. It also includes disposition gains on our principal investments and our share of realized carried interest that is earned by our Asset Management business."

When I read above, I visualize cold hard cash flowing into BN's DE account. How else can it be available for distribution to shareholders unless it's actual money. I am assuming you don't disagree with this. But are you saying some of the money may be generated not by honest earnings, but by some other means? If yes, how can we be vigilant and monitor?

You mentioned off-balance-sheet vehicles at Enron. If some such thing existed at BN, would there be some telltale signs in their financial reporting that we could notice? This board gives participants a chance to collaborate and collectively dig deeper.

ther alt managers are pretty near their 52-week highs. BN is not.

above is a good point. if you don't mind sharing, please let us wich other alt managers you are tracking/diversifying into. I would like to add to my tracking list and learn more.