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As an individual value investor, I am often frustrated with the inability to exert any type of influence over the companies that I invest in. Individual investors lack the ability to influence management and board decisions because they do not own large enough stakes in the underlying companies for their voices to be heard. The result is that they are subject to the whims of management teams whose own self interests are not always aligned with the best interest of shareholders.

We have all witnessed the destruction of value resulting from poor decision making, overpaying for acquisitions and inefficient use of capital by entrenched management teams over and over again.

Unfortunately, no matter how much research one conducts in identifying undervalued investment situations; bad management team inability or unwillingness to unlock value for shareholders can lead to even the greatest ideas not panning out.

I have always idolized the actions of activist investors like Carl Icahn and Nelson Peltz who have the ability to force underperforming management teams to take actions which maximize value for shareholders.

Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ: IEP), offers individual investors a rare opportunity to invest with one of the most seasoned activists alive today. Best of all, the management team and largest shareholder is Carl Icahn himself. As of September 30, 2011, affiliates of Mr. Icahn owned 79,238,262 depositary units which represented approximately 92.6% of the outstanding depositary units.

Icahn Enterprises is a diversified investment company run by Carl Icahn and structured as a master limited partnership. The holding company is engaged in eight primary business segments: Investment, Automotive, Gaming, Railcar, Food Packaging, Metals, Real Estate and Home Fashion.

Some of IEP's larger investments include approximately 76.8% of the total outstanding common stock of FederalMogul, approximately 61.7% of the total outstanding common stock of Tropicana and approximately 55.3% of the total outstanding common stock of American Railcar Industries.

Below, I have included a brief description of some of IEP's businesses, compliments of the recent 10Q:IEP conducts its' Automotive segment through its' majority ownership in FederalMogul. FederalMogul is a leading global supplier of technology and innovation in vehicle and industrial products for fuel economy, emissions reduction, alternative energies, environment and safety systems. FederalMogul serves the world's foremost original equipment manufacturers ( of automotive, light commercial, heavyduty, industrial, agricultural, aerospace, marine, rail and offroad vehicles, as well as the worldwide aftermarket. Tropicana currently owns and operates a diversified, multijurisdictional collection of casino gaming properties. The eight casino facilities it operates feature approximately 411,000 square feet of gaming space with 7,448 slot machines, 223 table games and 6,048 hotel rooms with three casino facilities located in Nevada, two in Mississippi and one in each of Indiana, Louisiana and New Jersey. ARI manufactures railcars, which are offered for sale or lease, custom designed railcar parts and other industrial products, primarily aluminum and special alloy steel castings. These products are sold to various types of companies including leasing companies, railroads, industrial companies and other nonrail companies. ARI provides railcar repair and maintenance services for railcar fleets. In addition, ARI provides fleet management and maintenance services for railcars owned by certain customers. ( Metals PSC Metals collects industrial and obsolete scrap metal, processes it into reusable forms and supplies the recycled metals to its customers including electricarc furnace mills, integrated steel mills, foundries, secondary smelters and metals brokers. PSC Metals' ferrous products include shredded, sheared and bundled scrap metal and other purchased scrap metal such as turnings (steel machining fragments), cast furnace iron and broken furnace iron. PSC Metals also processes nonferrous metals including aluminum, copper, brass, stainless steel and nickelbearing metals. Nonferrous products are a significant raw material in the production of aluminum and copper alloys used in manufacturing. PSC Metals also operates a secondary products business that includes the supply of secondary plate and structural grade pipe that is sold into niche markets for counterweights, piling and foundations, construction materials and infrastructure endmarkets.

Real Estate

IEP's Real Estate segment consists of rental real estate, property development and resort activities. As of September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, they owned 30 rental real estate properties. Their property development operations are run primarily through Bayswater Development LLC, a real estate investment, management and development subsidiary that focuses primarily on the construction and sale of singlefamily and multifamily homes, lots in subdivisions and planned communities and raw land for residential development. Their New Seabury development property in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and their Grand Harbor and Oak Harbor development property in Vero Beach, Florida each include land for future residential development of approximately 326 and 870 units of residential housing, respectively. Both developments operate golf and resort operations as well.

Home Fashion

IEP conducts its' Home Fashion segment through its' majority ownership in WestPoint International, LLC, a manufacturer and distributor of home fashion consumer products. WPI is engaged in the business of manufacturing, sourcing, designing, marketing, distributing and selling home fashion consumer products. WPI markets a broad range of manufactured and sourced bed, bath, basic bedding and kitchen textile products, including, sheets, pillowcases, comforters, flocked blankets, woven blankets and throws, heated blankets, quilts, bedspreads, duvet covers, bed skirts, bed pillows, feather beds, mattress pads, drapes, bath and beach towels, bath rugs, kitchen towels and kitchen accessories. WPI recognizes revenue primarily through the sale of home fashion products to a variety of retail and institutional customers. ("Viskase"). Viskase is a worldwide leader in the production and sale of cellulosic, fibrous and plastic casings for the processed meat and poultry industry. Viskase currently operates seven manufacturing facilities and nine distribution centers throughout North America, Europe and South America and derives approximately 70% of its total net sales from customers located outside the United States. Viskase believes it is one of the two largest manufacturers of nonedible cellulosic casings for processed meats and one of the three largest manufacturers of nonedible fibrous casings. While it is difficult to estimate the current book value due to the uncertainty of IEP diverse investment portfolio including short positions, it is reasonable to assume that book value may have increased since they last reported. The S 500 has gained 12.9% since the end of Q3 2011. Since IEP is diversified, and it is leveraged to the general economy and markets, using the performance of the S 500 as a proxy would indicate that book value may have increased to $47.90.

Looking at some of their larger holdings also indicates an increase in book value since last quarter. Federal Mogul share price has gained 5%. American Rail share price has increased 75%. Tropicana share price has grown 17%, and Viskase has fallen 3%

I recommend buying IEP below $40.00 vs. shorting an equivalent dollar amount of the S 500 to minimize market risk. Carl Icahn hedge fund is rumored to have returned 35% in 2011 which also bodes well for IEP. His hedge fund investors are charged 2% management fees and 25% of profits. IEP allows you to invest with Icahn for free! Carl has $2.95 billion of his own money invested in IEP. That is pretty strong motivation for him to maximize value for IEP shareholders. IEP recently announced a $500 million rights offering at $36.79 and Carl Icahn has also stated that he intends to exercise his rights. That means he will be adding an additional 12.58mm shares worth $463mm of IEP to his holdings. If IEP is good enough for a great value creator like Carl Icahn then it belongs in your portfolio as well. The opportunity to buy IEP below book is too hard for this value investor to pass up.

Make sure to use tight limit orders when trading IEP since it is very thinly traded.

Disclosure: I am long IEP and I may buy or sell IEP during the next three days. I am short S 500 and I may buy or sell S 500 during the next three days.

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The calculation to figure out how you are turning inventory, is to first find out the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for the past 12 months. Then take the current inventory and divide it by the Cost of Goods Sold and you get the number of times you have turned inventory.

Retailers, who used to work on the "Retail Method of Accounting", traditionally calculated the number of turns of inventory by adding beginning RETAIL value of your inventory to the RETAIL value of your purchases then subtracting the RETAIL value of the ending inventory, then divided that value by your total sales. This method has been used in the past because the retailers, on the advice of their accountants, used retail values as it was too difficult to calculate costs manually. But that assumes that everything you sell will be at the retail value. Now, with a good Inventory Control system you will obtain a true Cost of Sales. The turns can be calculated for the whole inventory or part of the inventory such as a department or product grouping and gives you a picture of the business compared to the last month, quarter, season or year, and how you compare to others in your industry. The higher the number of turns, the better you are doing and the more productivity you are getting from your inventory investment, Return On Investment (ROI). If two companies are the same in every way but one is turning over its inventories more often, the one with better inventory management is the one that is going to be able to grow faster. Inventory management actually is a bottleneck for growth if it is not efficient enough, tying up a lot of working capital that could be better used elsewhere.

There is a fine line between a high number of turns and running out of product because your inventory is too close to what you are selling AND having too much inventory compared to your sales When you get your inventory to the correct levels then you have achieved JustinTime Inventory. There is a critical mass point where the amount of inventory on hand will earn the best return. For example, if you had $1 million in inventory, and you only had sales of $100,000 in a month, you would have too much inventory and not make the turns. On the other hand, if you had $10,000 in inventory and $100,000 in sales, you would be buying too often and losing out on inventory turns. The ideal point is to turn inventory 56 times, and it is possible to turn it 1012 times as many companies do. There are many factors which influence inventory turns, including how quickly you can replenish.

Your goal is to keep your inventory investment at target levels with as wide a selection as possible. Financial advisors Motley Fool believes inventory is a liability masquerading as an asset, especially with retailers. Inventory represents the merchandise the company has available for sale. For most retailers, this is finished goods sitting in warehouses or on store shelves.

The reason they consider this a liability is because of inventory risk. Essentially, inventory risk is the risk that the value of the inventory will decline before it's sold. The problem that many retailers face is that their goods are perishable, either literally in the sense of food spoiling, or theoretically in the sense that items could go out of fashion.

How big is this risk? It depends on the type of retailer. For retailers that sell fashionable items, this risk is significant. If they cannot sell products when they are "hot," it will be hard if not impossible to sell them at full price in the future. The result is lower prices or "markdowns" on the inventory to entice customers to buy the merchandise. Because of the lower prices, the company will make less money, thus profits fall.

Furthermore, when it comes time to buy merchandise for the next season, the retailer finds itself a bit short of cash. In fact, the retailer could decide to buy fewer items next time to hedge against inventory risk. The point here is that high levels of inventory are often a leading indicator of problems for a retailer.

Many industries and companies use GMROI (Gross Margin Return on Investment) which is a merchandise planning and decision making tool that assists buyers in identifying and evaluating whether an adequate gross margin is being earned by the products purchased, compared to the investment in inventory required to generate those gross margin dollars. This is very common in the fashion industry, where merchandise is replaced every season.

For every dollar of inventory investment GMROI will help you calculate your return. The industry may average $2.00 return for every inventory dollar, however, some retailers, however are getting $4, $5 or more.

GMROI reveals where actual dollar profits (versus paper profits) are attained in the merchandise plan. It focuses the buyers' attention on returnoninvestment rather than sales as a basis for merchandising decisions.

To calculate GMROI, follow these steps:

GMROI works for any size store, department or merchandise classification. It will work for each category in each department, each class in each category, each color, each size in each class and so on.

Managing your GMROI results will enable your inventory to work for you and generate increased profits.

George Matyjewicz, PhD is Global Strategist of GAP Enterprises, Ltd. He was formerly President/General Manager of a global digital currency company with customers in 190 countries and Chief ECommerce Officer for a global giftware company. CPA/Consulting firm. He is regularly published as an expert on global business, finance, technology and implementation and writes and publishes ETailer Digest which reaches retailers in 50+ countries worldwide.

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Silver is a very popular choice of metal for jewelleries and other keepsakes. This metal is considered precious metal. It costs lower than platinum and gold, but it is very durable and is a good investment. Silver fashion jewellery is popular all year round, although the trend changes over time.

This metal is very soft. It is usually mixed with another metal to create a harder alloy so that the jewelers can shape it more easily. Copper is the most common metal that is used in the compound. Recently, germanium has been used to create a more tarnish resistant alloy. Alloy made with germanium is called argentium.

Bali beads and Karen Hill Tribe beads are traditional beads made from this precious metal. You can purchase these beads from your local suppliers or directly from Bali and Thailand. These beads are often combined with natural stone beads to create ethnic style jewelleries.

Jewelleries are often plated with gold. The plating helps prevent tarnish and adds golden color to the items. Another metal that is widely used for plating is rhodium. Jewelleries that have been plated with gold or rhodium tend to cost a little bit more than nonplated jewelleries.

You need to know how to keep and care precious metal jewelleries, so they will shine for a long time. When you are not wearing them, keep them in airtight containers. Wrap each piece carefully to prevent scratches and abrasions. Jewelleries that are worn everyday are more tarnish resistant to those which are kept for a long time.

You can purchase silver fashion jewellery at your local jewellery stores or at online shops. When you are shopping for jewellerie, make sure to check the item carefully, especially the materials. Jewellers often incorporate gemstones into their designs, and you need to make sure you get the authentic gemstones.

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Since zentai suits first appeared in sports and later as artistic image in manga and comics, more and more people have noticed this special clothes fashion style, and have curiosity for it, such as why do you like it, how does it feel to be encased in a suit, how do you breath in it, etc. Indeed when it comes to wear a zentai suit, these are very practical questions, and in this article, here's a brief opinion about breath in zentai costume.

To answer this question, we need to source back to the cloth material of zentai suits. But before this, do you still remember the ninja, which often shows in movies with their whole face covered except the eyes? Actually we all know that with one layer of cloth covered our face, the breath should not be a big problem for common people. Maybe this is far away from the dominate clothes fashion, or maybe the zentai overall creates a much vivid image, we have doubt for this issue seeing one person fully encased in the suit.

Comes back to the cloth material topic, most zentai suits are tailored by lycra spandex. This is a kind of highly elastic material, and most are very thin. Only very few zentai suits are tailored by thick lycra, most for special purposes. So generally speaking, the lycra tailored suits are not much thicker than silk, and to breath in it is totally no problem. There's people ever worn seven layers of lycra zentai suits at the same time, and the breath is a little bit harder compared with only one layer, but it doesn't cause much difficult, except you may need to take long breaths, or use mouth for it too. At the same time, shiny metallic zentai outfits, is a little bit thicker than lycra, but to breath in one suit is no problem either.

What needs to get your attention is, if you are trying to wear a web zentai suit, or wear a suit then soak yourself including the body in water, you need to be more careful. Generally, to put on a wet lycra spandex hood, the breath becomes much more difficult, and you may take long breath and use mouth for breath too. Hence to swim in a full body zentai suit, is something dangerous. Please you want to do this, please make the hood removable, and get yourself prepared so you won't get panic caused by the sudden pressure of water and wet cloth. When it comes to swim, it's better to make the gloves and feet removable for your lycra zentai costume too.

Mermaid zentai suit is full body zentai suit with a cool mermaid like tail. And if you want to try swim in it, please make sure the mermaid suit is tailored by nonshiny metallic cloth, whose color will gets off in water. And trust me, no matter how fantastic or big you tailor the tail, it won't give you much propulsion.

If you have some fear for the breath issue in zentai outfits, you could begin your first zentai suit wear from a lycra suit, and it would be better to get a removable hood, and have a friend nearby for help. And don't try multiple layers, or wet zentai suit, at the right beginning. Breath is not a problem, and don't let the possible fear spoils the fun time.

Different from some people like Lady Gaga, who has created the classic wear of flesh color zentai suit and jacket, and becomes a classic style in fashion world, most of us wear zentai suits only because we feel like it, and it brings us some fun. So never force yourself into a suit, and if you feel loving it and want to try one, you could begin with a thin lycra suit first, and for the first time's wear, get yourself prepared at mind, and if it's possible you could invite a friend to try the suit together with you, or stay nearby and share your happiness, and he could also help if anything, such as the suit too small, or zipper stuck.

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Women usually carry more stuff and move out of the house as compared to men who are less baggage on the move. It's pretty obvious also, reason being Men don't have to carry their lipsticks, comb, creams etc to stay intact. Bags are a necessity to women but not just even necessity these days. Now women are choosy about what they carry, does it match or gel well. They don't like to carry huge bags on evenings and parties. Whole day their bags are huge and spacious ones. Evenings they can surely afford to carry something stylish and small. A Black Clutch Bag suits the purpose perfectly. As Black matches with all colors and Clutch Bags look trendy and up market. Black Clutch Bags in fact handbags of any kind have had their own history.

In the 15th Century, medieval handbags were very much in fashion. People used to connect them to Weddings and Marriage purpose. As Gift options were very less, people couldn't opt for anything better than this. Pouches were embroidery were very much in trend. These were not simple embroideries but love stories engraved with the help of threads on Handbags. This used to be a special gift from Groom to the Bride. Another kind of Bags was in fashion which was most commonly used for Gaming or storing of food on travel. This food was for feeding large birds like Falcons etc who were used by Kings and Knights for Hunting and Sports. These Bags were called "Chaneries" and not everyone utilized these.

As in 14th Century itself bags became the symbol of one's status and prestige. Having a stylish Bag for Senior and Royal people of Society was thought to be a must. In the 15th century also came Seal Bags. These were manufactured and created for the Lord Chancellor. Lord Chancellor was a very senior and important dignitary in UK Government. As people of high society started sporting the Seal Bags, it not just became most famous but also most important Bags of this century.