I sold MXB six hours too early

Stocks in review week of Dec 16 to Dec 22

1) I bought some MXB shares on Dec 19. After I read its prospectus more carefully, I found two things I don’t like: it will use the proceeds of the IPO ($225 m) and borrow some $425 m to pay the dividend to its parent, Morgan Stanley; Morgan Stanley still controls more than 90% of its share. So I put up a limited sell order at 29.30 for Dec 21.

On Dec 21 the stock opened at $29.50 and had a huge run from 3:00 PM EST till close. It closed at $33.72. This reminded me 3 years ago I sold my 51job (JOBS) two days too early.

Got some MXB MSCI Inc. shares

I bought some MSCI (company, stock:MXB) today. A month ago I heard about it from my friend StrengthTrader’s blog. But at that time I was a bit obsessed with my LFT and CROX, and did not have stomach for another IPO. In last few weeks when I was doing research for my new 401K plan and IRA, I found MSCI index is frequently mentioned as the bench mark for many funds. It’s not the first time I heard about MSCI, but it re-inforced my belief that index fund will be more and more important for retirement investing. This is especially true in current weak market.

Also, from my limited research on the mutual funds for my 401k and IRA, most funds can not beat the index. So it does make sense for people to simply investing in the index fund (or ETF?).

Back to MSCI, it was a division inside Morgan Stanley, and recently got spin off, and IPOed on Nov. 18. Here is its prospectus. The stock is not cheap, at $29, its PE is about 34, twice the earning growth rate (17%). Also, keep in mind Morgan Stanely still has more than 80% stake on this baby.

By the way, for more information on mutual fund investing, you may want to check out my friend Sun’sFinancialDiary. I know he has a lot more experience on this topic than me.

(update Dec 20) Found this bearish article on MSCI at ZachStocks.