Although the Insiders Fund looked like the best dog in the dog show in January, it was still a dog, losing a little less than 3%. February then proceeded to make January look like a walk in the park.  The most obvious answer to the time-old question, “how do you know you are in a bear market?” That’s simple. When all your longs are down and all your shorts are working.

 For someone as obsessed as me about winning at this investing game, it was a small but sickening consolation. There was nothing really wrong with the losing positions in our portfolio.  The news for the most part was good. It just didn’t matter.  People were getting out of stocks. Not all people though.  Private equity has built up its largest war chest in years and this is their moment to buy stocks on the cheap.  Today, I woke up to the headline “Tenneco Agrees to All-Cash Acquisition by Apollo Funds at $20/Share, Valued at $7.1 Billion, Including Debt; Shares Surge Premarket

Tenneco(TEN) said Wednesday it agreed to be acquired by Apollo (APO) funds at a price of $20 per share in an all-cash transaction that implies an enterprise value of $7.1 billion, including debt. The price represents a 100.4% premium over Tenneco’s(TEN) closing share price of $9.98 on Tuesday and a big premium to our average cost of $13.17.

This is the 4th stock in our portfolio this year already that has gotten take-out offers. 1st. there was Activision, then Bally (still ongoing as I think the bid may be too low for a deal to happen but the company already owns most of Bally), Cornerstone Building Brands received an offer from private equity investor Clayton, Dubilier & Rice to buy the rest of building products manufacturers’ shares that the firm doesn’t already hold for $24.65 per share, and now Tenneco.

My promise that 2022 will be a big year for The Insiders Fund is very much alive.