Bill Ackman lost nearly $300 million today because of a 20% decline in JC Penney (JCP). According to Ackman’s latest 13F filing Pershing Square had nearly $1.4 billion invested in JC Penney at the end of March. Luckily trading is over today and Bill Ackman is looking for new targets (pun intended).

Bill Ackman recommended a long position in JC Penney at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference today. WHAT? This is his best idea? This is a horrible investment idea at this time. Why would you pay $26.75 for a stock when you can buy it for $0.75 after it declares bankruptcy. Bill Ackman has a very bad track record when it comes to retail industry. His investors lost their shirt because of Ackman’s Target adventure. Now he is telling us to buy JC Penney (JCP)! Again!  He told us that JC Penney should be close to $70 in a few years. That was 18 months ago and the stock price was 20% back then. Why would we trust him now?

John Lykouretzos’ Hoplite Capital isn’t very well known but we have been tracking it for a while now. John T. Lykouretzos launched Hoplite Capital Management in 2003 after working for five years at Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global Investors. Lykouretzos’ expertise is in industrials and financial services. Before joining Viking, Lykouretzos worked at Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management Corporation as an industrials analyst for two years. After graduating from Yale in 1995, he was at Goldman Sachs (GS) as a financial analyst for three years. Here is some more personal info about John Lykouretzos.

John Lykouretzos recommended a long position in Starbucks (SBUX) at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference. He is betting on the growth of global economy at the moment but Starbucks is a cyclical stock. This may not be the best time to invest in Starbucks.

John Paulson doesn’t really have a good track record of stock picking. He made his billions by shorting the housing market and by buying physical gold. At the Ira Sohn Conference John Paulson recommended a long position in AngloGold (AU) because of its cheap valuation. We have a different take on this stock. Since the beginning of 2006 gold prices tripled whereas AngloGold lost nearly 45% of its value. Given John Paulson’s recent track record, this may be an excellent short candidate.

Paulson also recommended Caesars Entertainment Corp (CZR). This recommendation doesn’t make sense. Paulson had only $182 million invested in this stock at the end of March, whereas he had $1.35 billion in AU. We don’t think this is one of Paulson’s highest conviction stock picks.

Billionaire Steve Mandel said he doesn’t like fixed income because of extremely low yields and inflation risk. His favorite stock pick is Kohl’s (KSS). Mandel didn’t have Kohl’s in his portfolio at the end of March. This may be a recent pick for him. Mandel’s biggest positions are Google (GOOG), Priceline (PCLN), and Apple (AAPL). At the Ira Sohn Conference he mentioned that he likes certain names in tech but didn’t name any. These are probably his favorite picks.

Einhorn, Ackman, Greenblatt, and Klarman picked a guy named Ardewall as this year’s winner of Ira Sohn Investment Idea Contest winner. I am going to be honest with you. These picks usually don’t work. Let’s see what happened to last year’s winner.

Last year’s winner was a guy named Sanjay Gorawara and his best idea was Bridgepoint Education (BPI). The lost lost more than 10% since his recommendation. This is ridiculous. How is this a great investment idea?

This year’s pick is a little bit different than last year’s stock pick. David Einhorn has nearly $125 million invested in Xerox (XRX) (This probably explains why Einhorn picked this guy as the winner). I don’t think the stock will be a home run though. It is a good value play but God knows when it will generate some real returns for investors. It needs to double its dividend yield but I don’t think they have any intention of doing that. Where is Dan Loeb when you need him?

Herbalife was up around 6% on day when everybody was expecting David Einhorn to reveal a short position in the stock at the Ira Sohn Conference. This just doesn’t make sense unless someone knew that Einhorn will recommend other stocks and bought Herbalife in anticipation of a huge jump. In fact, Herbalife jumped after Einhorn’s presentation and closed the day at nearly $50. It was up 17% today.

I am not sure this counts as ILLEGAL insider trading though. It is just a positive externality of being close to David Einhorn.

David Einhorn thinks Apple may become a billion dollar stock. Greenlight Capital had nearly $900 million invested in the stock at the end of March. It is by far the largest position in Einhorn’s portfolio. He was very shy revealing his position in Apple nearly 2 years ago. He paid $250 for these shares at that time.

David Einhorn Likes: Apple (AAPL)

David Einhorn Neutral: Amazon (AMZN)

David Einhorn Doesn’t Like: Martin Marietta (MLM), US Steel (X), Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS), Facebook (FB), China, France

David Einhorn said today that a French default isn’t out of question and China isnt an investment opportunity. A couple of years ago Einhorn revealed short bets on Japanese government bonds too. We love Einhorn but his track record isn’t very strong when it comes to predicting sovereign defaults.

Everybody was expecting David Einhorn to reveal his short position in Herbalife but Einhorn surprised investors. David Einhorn recommended shorting Martin Marietta (MLM) at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference. This is a stock with a PE ratio close to 60. It looks like this stock’s fate will be similar to Green Mountain’s fate. It is down 10%. Check out the stock’s chart minutes later:

Jim Chanos

The best hedge fund manager at last year’s Ira Sohn Investment Conference was Jim Chanos. He recommended shorting Vestas WInd Systems (VWS) and First Solar (FSLR). Vestas lost 72% of its value and First Solar was the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 index. First Solar’s loss was nearly 87%. Can you believe these stock picks? The poor performance of First Solar helped David Einhorn to eke out a positive return in 2011 as well.

Jim Chanos isn’t at the Ira Sohn Conference this year but John Paulson is. Investors can short John Paulson’s long stock picks and may achieve high returns (just kidding).

We have the transcript of Jim Chanos’ presentation from last year and we will share this with you shortly.

Philippe Laffont recommended Equinix (EQIX) and Virgin Media (VMED) at the Ira Sohn Conference. He said Equinix could reach $500 within the next few years. We think he is sincere in these stoco picks. His hedge fund, Coatue Management, had more than $900 million in Apple (AAPL). His second biggest position is Equinix. Laffont had $573 million invested in this stock at the end of March. Philippe Laffont’s third largest position is Google (GOOG), followed by a $343 million bet on Virgin Media (VMED).