Student Loan Portfolio Project

We forgot to mention the Student Loan Portfolio Project.

Basically....we'll follow a portfolio of publically traded student lending companies and comment on the returns from time to time. We'll start off with: UNCL, NNI, STU, SLM, FMD, CIT. If we forgot any, or need to include any, drop us a note...don't want to ruffle any feathers.

But, 45 days into the Student Loan Portfolio Project, the industry is returning about 9.2%. We have a few anomolies however. Of course Sallie Mae have a purchase offer in front of them, so they're featuring a 33% return. And the private education monolines UNCL & FMD are flat to declining...interesting to not. Otherwise, the "traditional" student lenders are up 10-ish% with the exception of NNI, they're lagging at a 4% return.

Are there any natural hedges to a student loan basket of stocks? Unnatural hedges? Leading indicators? We don't know...but interesting to watch.