Dear Diary,
I just closed the ROH arbitrage for $63.28 a share, a 2% gain over an 80 day holding period. The average buy price was $61.76 a share on two purchases (10-16-08 and 12-29-08). This represents a 9.13% annualized gain on the deal. I sold out because of the volatility of the deal: Kuwait dropped a $15 billion contract with DOW, the buyer of ROH, with the assumption that the Kuwait money is to be used to buy ROH.
All arbitrage situations are closing fine except for the HUN deal, but I'm only about $1.00 a share out of the black on that deal. Overall, arbitrage is a fine business, and I expect to be doing it a long time.
I had some trouble logging into my blog today, so I hope there is no problem with the system.
Gene