Barton Biggs thinks Cisco Systems finances 20% of its networking equipment (2000)

In a recent research note, Morgan Stanley's Barton Biggs said he's been hearing that Cisco [Systems] will give some of its customers nine-year notes on some of its equipment with no interest or repayment during the first three years.  Biggs says some people at the company have acknowledged to him that a good portion of this equipment will be obsolete in three years...  So how much of Cisco's business is financed this way?  Biggs says he thinks it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 20%.

~ Barron's, "The Trader" section, April 24, 2000

Barton Biggs on bull markets and sex

A bull market is a lot like sex.  It feels best just before it ends.

~ Barton Biggs

Barton Biggs bails out in August 2011

I've taken some risk off, and I hate to do it, I think it's probably the wrong thing to be doing, but I'm a fiduciary to a certain extent, and I've got to protect my capital.

I don't understand now what's going on. I suspect that we're now into a high-frequency trading, momentum-driven cascading downturn. And I want to get out of the way of it.

~Barton Biggs, managing partner and co-founder, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg TV, August 8, 2011

Barton Biggs is kept up all night worrying about nuclear explosions on Long Island

Yeah, sure, I'm worried about a double-dip. But I'm worried about a nuclear explosion on Long Island, too. You know, there's all kinds of things to be worried about.

~Barton Biggs, founder, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg TV, August 4, 2011

Barton Biggs on buying opportunities

I see all kinds of buying opportunities. The problem is, I already own part of them.

After getting banged in the face yesterday I'm not too inclined to step in there again... yet.

~Barton Biggs, founder, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg TV, August 4, 2011

(The anchorwoman reported prior to asking Barton Biggs about buying opportunities that he was 50% net long going into the August 4th meltdown and he said he wished he had been about 10-20% net long instead.)

Barton Biggs on saving the euro

It's clear that the Europeans didn't put together a big enough package to solve the problem and now, since they didn't do that, they're going to have to do a much bigger package and maybe even do fiscalization [sic]  of Europe to save the euro.

~Barton Biggs, founder, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg TV, August 4, 2011

Barton Biggs on the reason for the big August selloff

There's no question that the original reason was the lack of confidence in the authorities, in other words, the politicians and their ability to deal with this thing. The Europeans did not do a big enough package to solve their sovereign debt issue  and we have had this and we [the US] had this really half-assed compromise where we didn't really deal with the entitlements issue. So, there's been a loss of confidence but I am astounded at how severe the reaction has been.

~Barton Biggs, founder, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg TV, August 4, 2011

Barton Biggs says falling house prices will result in QE3

I don't think [the Fed will be forced to raise rates]. I think Bernanke is obsessed with house prices because he knows how important house prices are for the net worth of the average American, and they're crucial. The fact that house prices are still declining has got to be telling him that QE2 is still not doing what he hoped it was going to do.

So, I think if house prices keep falling there's a good probability that he's not going to end QE2 and there may be a QE3.

~Barton Biggs, managing partner, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg News interview, March 24, 2011

Barton Biggs likes China, EMs, growth tech in early 2011

I think China and a couple of the other emerging Asian markets, Indonesia, probably India, are very appealing. I think in the US, tech stocks, particularly the big capitalization, growth tech stocks, and I differentiate between the big capitalization, mature tech companies and the new generation of growth tech stocks, are very attractive. And I still like the oil service stocks, for example.

I can find plenty of good stocks to buy.

~Barton Biggs, managing partner, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg News interview, March 24, 2011

Barton Biggs shares his optimistic investment philosophy, and some concerns

Look, you can't live your life investing on the probability of black swans and so, yes, I think the economic news is very encouraging. We're moving from a snapback and a recovery into a self-sustaining recovery. The data's been a little soft the last couple of weeks but still I think the economic news is good enough both in the US, Europe, Asia and maybe even in Japan to move markets another 10 or 15% from here.

But, if something awful happens in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia, all bets are off. And if the Europeans continue to muck up this whole sovereign debt situation, that could be a very disconcerting factor. And look, there's always things to worry about and I'm worried about US house prices and again, the data that came out today shows that US house prices on existing homes are still declining and in fact have declined to a new low and that home sales, in other words of these existing homes, have weakened very significantly in the last month and a half or so.

And that's bad, there's no question about it.

~Barton Biggs, managing partner, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg News interview, March 24, 2011

Barton Biggs says he's loaded up on US equities in early 2011

I bought a 10% position in Japan which is hardly a big deal, but I definitely like the US [equity markets]. I've been there all the way through and, frankly, I cut back a little bit during that pullback but I'm pretty well loaded up now.

~Barton Biggs, managing partner, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg News interview, March 24, 2011

Barton Biggs isn't fazed by a couple of black swans flapping around out there

We've certainly had a number of black swan crises, back-to-back, and that's always very disconcerting. But how do I feel now? I sort of feel that we've got through a couple of them and there's still a couple of black swans flapping around out there, but unless you come up with a dire scenario I think we're going to extend the rally back through the highs of a month ago and hopefully further than that.

~Barton Biggs, managing partner, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg News interview, March 24, 2011

Barton Biggs diving headfirst into stocks after 56% rise

This is not a time where you want to be underinvested. The odds of a significant slowdown are one in five, pretty remote.

~ Barton Biggs, managing partner, Traxis Partners, "Biggs Recommends Stocks Given Odds Economy Will Avoid Recession", Bloomberg.com, September 1st, 2010

Barton Biggs: U.S. stocks "close to a bottom"

[The U.S. stock market is] pretty close to a bottom [and may mount a] powerful [rally].

This is not the end of the world. There's a possibility out there that with oil down as much as it is, we're going to get a push in consumer spending.

~ Barton Biggs, hedge-fund manager, "Biggs Says U.S. Stocks 'Close to Bottom,' May Rally," Bloomberg Television, September 5, 2008, by Eric Martin and Kathleen Hays

(Biggs, a former Morgan Stanley strategist, now runs the hedge fund Traxis Partners LLC, which is down about 10 percent this year through Aug. 31. )

Barton Biggs: Bullish on U.S. stocks

Barton Biggs of Traxis Partners joined the "Fast Money" crew to share his take on the markets. Biggs thinks the Fed did what it should have done and the market is being set up for a big surge higher. He also mentioned that he is hearing from the prime brokers that hedge funds are at their lowest levels of being net long in 4 years. He expects a stampede into year end in big cap big multinationals, tech, Asia and emerging markets.

Biggs feels China right now is just like U.S. tech stocks in early 1999. He thinks the investment banks are signaling they will perform well into year end.

~ TheStreet.com, "Fast Money Recap; Rate Cut Reaction," October 31, 2007