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AAPL Off On Earnings Fears
Markets are off on global economic worries while the trade deficit number comes in-line. Shares of AAPL are off with tech on fears that the company might miss earnings as consumers await updated products. Apple will report earnings for its third fiscal quarter on Tuesday, July 24. Shareholders are earning a dividend as of July 1. Investors remain focused on iPhone penetration globally and the anticipated launch of the next generation in the fall; iPad adoption and the rumored launch of a smaller version; market share growth of the Mac business lines; the introduction of the anticipated Apple TV set and related products; and evolution of platforms such as Siri, iAd and iBooks. Shares of Apple trade at 9.7x Enterprise Value / Trailing Twelve Months Free Cash Flow (including long-term marketable securities).

Analyst Says Apple Likely To Post Big Miss This Quarter (June) And Next (Barron's)
BMO Capital’s Keith Bachman reiterated his Outperform rating on shares of Apple, raised his price target to $700 from $695, and then cut estimates for this quarter and next, based on what he sees as a shift of sales into next fiscal year. Now that makes sense. Bachman says the next two quarters will be "challenging," meaning the fiscal quarter that just ended and the current quarter. Apple is up against the pending introduction of another iPhone but he realizes that investors are well aware of the product cycle, and likely negative revision to near-term estimates so will be forgiving.

Apple Could Sell 6 Million iPad Mini's This Holiday (Apple Insider)
Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray believes that Apple's rumored smaller iPad would be priced at $299 with 16GB of storage. Sandwiched right in the middle of the iPod Touch and iPad, he sees a smaller iPad cannibalizing 10% of existing iPad sales, but also taking away 30% of total Android tablet sales in the December quarter. "Apple could sell 4-6 million smaller iPads in the December quarter, assuming a holiday launch. If the launch occurs in (the fourth quarter), we believe the smaller iPad would add about 1% to revenue and (earnings per share) in December."

Let's Play How Many iPads Did Apple Sell Last Quarter? (Fortune)
The estimates range from 12.7 to 24 million. The best analysts' consensus is 18.75 million. There are 61 estimates total: 28 from the professionals who cover Apple for banks and brokerage houses and 33 from a rapidly growing contingent of independent Apple analysts. In four years, this is the first time the indies out-numbered the pros. As usual the indies are more bullish than the pros, but the iPad gap is unusually wide this quarter.

Let’s Try to Think This iPad Mini Thing All the Way Through (Daring Fireball)
Popular thinking is that if Apple produces a 7-inch iOS device, it would be a bigger iPod Touch, not a smaller iPad. That’s not what Apple is doing. For one thing, the rumored device has a very specific screen size: 7.85 inches diagonally. That’s far closer to 8 inches than 7 and the aspect ratio matches the iPad, not the iPod Touch. In fact, it’s closer to 8 inches than the 9.7-inch iPad-as-we-know-it is to 10 inches. Apple followed this strategy a decade ago with the iPod. Though the stakes are now far higher, there's no reason they wouldn’t do the same this decade with the iPad.

Here's How Amazon Can Take On Apple In The Mobile Phone Market (Crash Dev)
It won't be easy, but there's a way for Amazon to do something entirely different and incredibly disruptive. Amazon's Kindle Fire launch sent a clear message: Amazon is playing to win in this new, vertically integrated mobile device / OS / media war. And it will be Jeff Bezos' favorite play: minuscule margins and massive patience. We've seen glimmers of Amazon's mobile strategy already:

• By pricing Kindle Fire at BOM they quickly became the best-selling Android tablet on the market, betting that they'd make up the lost margin in increased share of wallet over time.
• Experiments with ad-supported Kindles have allowed Amazon to test the waters for other types of hardware subsidies that boost lifetime value while keeping retail hardware prices low.

If you take these ideas to their logical conclusion, it's not hard to imagine Amazon pulling the biggest move of all: giving away a pretty good smartphone, along with unlimited voice calling, completely free.

Einhorn Says Apple Is The Best Big Growth Company (MacDailyNews)
David Einhorn, founder and president of hedge fund Greenlight Capital, told CNBC that he thinks Apple "stock is substantially undervalued. It will be a trillion-dollar company, I would expect. First one. I think it’s, you know, the best big growth company we have. It is the dominating brand in the area that it is and trades at a multiple below the average in the S&P 500. I think that’s extraordinary."

SF Bans Apple Purchases On Apple's EPEAT Removal (Various via Scoople)
Apple has removed all of its Mac products from the EPEAT registry, including products that were previously EPEAT Gold, a rating given to the most environmentally friendly computers. As such, San Francisco has banned buying Macs for the city's 50 agencies, according to Department of Environment officials. In the greater scheme of things, the likely effect on the stock market's most valuable company will be negligible for the moment, but it will be interested in other agencies / companies follow suit. Think you know all the answers? Play Scoople on Facebook.

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Hundreds of hedge funders, bankers and many others filled up Manhattan's gorgeous Gotham Hall last night for a sold out charity poker tournament. 

REACH (Rewarding Achievement)--a nonprofit co-founded by T2 Partner's Whitney Tilson and funded by Bill Ackman--hosted its third annual "Take 'Em to School Poker Tournament." 

REACH's mission is to help students from under-served schools in New York City get into college by taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses and passing the AP exams.  To achieve this, REACH offers free Saturday AP prep courses at Baruch College to students from 30 different City schools.  In return, the students get a Subway sandwich.

To date, the nonprofit has had nearly 19,000 students participate in its workshops.  

The annual poker tournament attended by Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn and pro poker player Andy Frankenberger is REACH's main fundraiser.

We attended last night's tournament and it was awesome.  And if you missed it, we've got all the photos you need right here. 

First off, the event venue, Gotham Hall, located in Midtown Manhattan, was absolutely stunning.

Hundreds of financial professionals were there. All 250 poker seats were sold out well in advance of the event. The other 150 or more guests imbibed on cocktails and played casino games in the periphery.

Ji-mei Ma, REACH board chair and managing director at Nebula Capital, gave opening remarks and thanked guests. She told Business Insider that REACH resonates with her because education was a huge part of her background in terms of changing her circumstances. She immigrated to the U.S. at age six and grew up in project housing. Because of education and her mentors, she graduated from Smith College and has been on Wall Street for 14 years now.

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Billionaire hedge fund hot-shot David Einhorn, the founder of Greenlight Capital who is famous for publicly shorting Lehman Brothers before the bank's demise, disclosed the fund's latest moves in a letter to investors. 

Here's a round up:  

• "Some of the 
  biggest winners from the first quarter, including Arkema (France: AKE), General Motors 
  (GM) and our Yen position, were among our biggest losers in the second quarter," the letter said.
• Marvell Technology was another "significant loser" for Greenlight, according to the letter.
• "Most of our gains in the quarter came from the short portfolio. The biggest winner was Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR), which fell from $46.84 to $21.78 per share," the Greenlight investor letter said.  Greenlight added that two other undisclosed short positions "made material contributions" during the quarter.
• Greenlight exited Best Buy (BBY) with a loss, according to the letter.
• CNBC Tweeted that Greenlight has taken new positions in Cigna and Coventry Health.  CNBC's Bertha Coombs also Tweeted that Einhorn says they don't have exposure to the euro crisis. 
• CNBC also notes that Einhorn's fund disclosed its largest long positions in Apple, GM, gold, Marvell and Seagate. 
• Meanwhile, Zerohedge Tweeted that Einhorn has sold out of Dell saying it was a disappointment.  The letter said Greenlight exited with a loss. 

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We found this part of hedge fund titan David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital's Q2 investor letter particularly amusing...  

Landon Lee, our Research Associate in Dallas, has decided to pursue an MBA at Columbia Business School. As Cheryl Einhorn is an Adjunct Professor there, one can’t help but feel that Landon is choosing Cheryl over David. And who wouldn’t? To discourage further poaching, David has taped a “Do Not Solicit Greenlight Employees” notice to the home fridge. We will miss Landon, and we wish him good luck!

Now, we'd like to see a picture of that. 

[h/t Dealbreaker] 

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It seems like we've seen a lot of feuds in finance lately.

And with big money and reputations at stake, it's no surprise that disagreements and quarrels have broken out in the world of high finance.

Sometimes the fights are between bank execs and fund managers and other times the financial media and politicians get pulled into it, too. 

What's more is the fights between high-powered individuals tend to get thrown into the public spotlight.

We've rounded up some of the best feuds in financial industry. Who doesn't like a good knock-down, drag out.

Dan Loeb vs. Ken Griffin

In 2005, Citadel founder Griffin's poaching of New York hedge fund employees caught the eye of Third Point's Dan Loeb. Griffin, who charges a higher management fee than traditional hedge funders, was allegedly luring the employees away with offers of higher salaries.

Loeb, who is known for his scathing letters to CEOs when he feels that companies he has invested in are not doing well, took up his poison pen and wrote Griffin a scathing letter. In it, he called Citadel a "gulag" and forbade him from approaching any Third Point employees under any circumstances. He also told Griffin matter of factly that Citadel was "over-rated" and that Griffin does not know how to manage people.

Here's our favorite bit from the letter:

I understand your need to hire employees from other firms, something that Third Point has not had to do based on the fact that, unlike yourself, I actually enjoy and have talent in investing and am able to nurture others within my organization whom I hire from wide ranging disciplines such as graduate schools, private equity firms and medicine.

Source: Insider Monkey

Cornelius Vanderbilt vs. Jay Gould

Financiers Jay Gould and Cornelius Vanderbilt engaged in one of the most epic feuds dubbed the "Erie war" in an effort to control Erie Railroad.

In 1868, Gould, a railroad developer who was a member of the board of directors for the company, teamed up with his co-conspirators James Frisk and Daniel Drew to issue a bunch of fraudulent shares of the Erie Railroad's stock.

He was able to legalize his actions by bribing legislators in Albany. 

This ended up watering down the stock price causing Vanderbilt to lose about $7 million.  

Gould later returned most of that money back, but Vanderbilt lost his attempt to control the company.

Source: Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

Source: notablebiographies.com

Bill Gross vs. Jeremy Stiegel

Bond king Bill Gross took a few shots at Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel in an investment letter explaining why stocks are going to be horrible investments.  

Siegel later appeared on CNBC and explained how Gross's analysis was wrong. 

He also appeared on Bloomberg TV and pointed out that Gross had called for the DOW to fall to 5,000 back in 2002 over the next 10 years but that it was at about 13,000. 

Gross appeared on Bloomberg TV shortly after that and fired back with, "Well Professor Siegel is getting a little nasty here but it seems like the gloves are off." 

What's more is in response to Siegel pointing out that Gross's analysis was off when he looked at the hundred year time frame for the 6.6% return, Gross responded with, "Well Professor Siegel's Ivory Tower again lacks common sense. If wealth is created at 3 percent a year in terms of GDP and that wealth is divided as it always is by government, by labor, and by business in the form of corporate profits, then its hard to see how one element corporation and stocks can continue to 3 percent more than real GDP going forward, and that's common sense."

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Hedge fund hot-shot David Einhorn, the founder of Greenlight Capital, filed his 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

According to the filing for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012, Greenlight has dumped its entire stakes in Dell and Research In Motion.

During Q2, Greenlight loaded up on health insurers and healthcare stocks adding new positions in Aetna, Humana, Cigna, Coventry Health, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint Inc., according to the quarterly report.

Greenlight also disclosed a new position in Chipotle Mexican Grill in Q2.  The hedge fund owned 44,000 Put options in Chipotle, the filing shows.

SEE ALSO: Berkshire Hathaway dumps shares in Intel >

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CNBC's Kate Kelly has a list of hedge funds that are outperforming their peers so far this year. 

Here's a round up of their YTD performance as of 8/31: 

• Greenlight Capital (David Einhorn) +10.9% YTD
• SAC Capital (Steve Cohen) +7.75% YTD
• Third Point Partners (Dan Loeb) +7.9%
• Maverick Capital (Lee Ainslie III) +20+%
• Perry Partners (Richard Perry) +8+%

SEE ALSO: Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors Is Up 22% YTD >

Watch the CNBC video below:  

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Shares of yoga pants maker lululemon athletica are getting slammed this afternoon.

Benzinga is reporting that there's a rumor circulating that David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital is shorting the stock.

Einhorn is famous for shorting companies like Lehman Brothers and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters before their stocks plummeted.

On separate occasions earlier this year, Einhorn words caused St. Joe's Company, Martin Marietta Metals, and Herbalife to instantly tanked.

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Gracing this year's Forbes 400, the magazine's annual list of the richest Americans, are thirty hedge fund managers. 

The newcomers to the rich list include hedge fund hot-shots Chase Coleman, Dan Loeb, David Einhorn and Paul Singer.

Meanwhile, Phil Falcone, the founder of Harbinger Capital, has dropped off the list.  Last year, Falcone's estimated net-worth was $2.2 billion and now it's $1.05 billion. 

We've combed through the Forbes 400 and have included the richest hedge funders in America.  

Paul Singer

Rank: 392

Net-worth: $1.1 billion

Age: 67

Hedge Fund: Elliott Management

Source: Forbes 400

Henry Swieca

Rank: 360

Net-worth: $1.2 billion

Age: 55

Hedge Fund: Talpion Fund Management

Source: Forbes 400

Stephen Mandel Jr.

Rank: 360

Net-worth: $1.2 billion

Age: 56

Hedge Fund: Lone Pine Capital

Source: Forbes 400

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We feel like we know Louis Bacon, Steve Schwarzman and Jamie Dimon to a certain extent because we read about them in the news all the time.

But we really don't know much about their wives at all, and that feels a little odd.

We've found that many of the hedge fund honchos, private equity titans and bank CEOs are married to some really remarkable women.

During our research, we found a fashion designer, an economist, several entrepreneurs and philanthropists. 

Now let's meet Wall Street's wives.

James Gorman's wife

Name: Penny Gorman (Pendleton Dedman)

About: She graduated from Smith College and worked in investment banking, according to a wedding announcement in the New York Times.

Jamie Dimon's wife

Name: Judith Dimon (Judith Ellen Kent)

About: Jamie Dimon and Judith met while they were at Harvard Business School.  They were married in 1983, according to a New York Times' wedding announcement.  

She's earned her bachelor's degree from Tulane University and her master's degree in organization psychology from Catholic University.  

The Dimons have three daughters -- Julia, Laura and Kara Leigh. 

Lloyd Blankfein's wife

Name: Laura Blankfein (Laura Susan Jacobs)

About: She graduated from the Fieldston School and magna cum laude from Barnard College, and received her law degree from Georgetown University, according to an engagement announcement in the New York Times. 

She's a former corporate lawyer and worked at Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon in New York. 

The Blankfeins have three children -- Alex, Jonathan and Rachel. 

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The highly-anticipated Value Investing Congress, a two-day event where top hedge fund stars present their best investment ideas, kicks off next Monday in Manhattan. 

Clusterstock will be there keeping you up to date with all the latest news and trade ideas coming from the conference.  

In the meantime, let's review how the investing ideas presented last October did.

These ideas were shared on October 17 and October 18, 2011.  For this report, we used data from Yahoo! Finance and tracked the stock's performance from the day the idea was announced through today.  

In case you're not already familiar with investing terms, "long" means you're buying a stock because you think the value will go up.  Shorting a stock is the opposite.  It means you're selling borrowed shares of stock with the expectation that it will fall. 

• Bill Ackman (Long Fortune Brands Home Security):  FBHS is up more than 87 percent from October 18, 2011 through today.
• David Einhorn (Short Green Mountain Coffee Roasters): GMCR is down more than 70 percent from October 17, 2011 through today.
• Leon Cooperman (Long Apple & long E*Trade Financial):  Apple's stock is up more than 58 percent from October 18, 2011 through today. Meanwhile, E*Trade Financial is down more than 9 percent from October 18, 2011 through today.
• Scout Capital's Adam Weiss (Long Williams Co.): Williams Companies, Inc. (WMB) is up more than 16 percent from October 18, 2011 through today, according to Yahoo! Finance data.
• Scout Capital's James Crichton (Long Sensata Technologies):  Sensata Technologies (ST) is down about 1.6 percent from October 18, 2011 through today. 
• Eagle Capital's Boykin Curry (Long Aon and Goldman Sachs):  Aon is up more than 13 percent since October 18, 2011.  Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs is up more than 12 percent from October 18, 2011 through today.
• Rational Investment Group's Guy Gottfried (Long Berkshire BRK):  Berkshire (BRK.B) is up more than 17.6 percent from October 18, 2011 through today. 
• Whitney Tilson & Glenn Tongue (Long Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A.) & J.C. Penney): Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) is up more than 17.5 percent from October 18, 2011 through today.  Meanwhile, JCPenney's stock is down 21.9 percent through today.

SEE ALSO: Leon Cooperman's tremendous presentation on life and investing >

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The 8th annual Value Investing Congress (VAC) starts in New York City on Monday, and that means some of the deepest thinkers on Wall Street will be presenting ideas that could rock the world of investing.

At least, that's what's happened in the past. The VAC is where David Einhorn once presented his devastating ideas on Green Mountain. It's also where Bill Ackman delivered his thesis on MBIA and the problems with bond insurers before the financial crisis.

So yeah, it's a big deal.

The VAC was founded by 20-year investing veterans John Schwartz and Whitney Tilson. As Tilson tells it, the idea came from a constant desire to keep learning from the best people in the field. For example, he's sat in on Seth Klarman and Joel Greenblatt's Columbia Business School classes and of course, attends the mother of all learning experiences, the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting.

The VAC is a way for Tilson and Schwartz to contribute to that tradition.

"It's a labor of love trying to share with other investors what I've benefitted from — listening to smart investors and asking questions," Tilson told Business Insider. "I think panels dumb people down... I became convinced the best learning format was to get the worlds smartest investors together... and the most critical part of it is taking questions, engaging with the audience."

It's an audience of people that, as Tilson put it, "pray at the church of Graham, Dodd, Buffett and Munger."

This year speakers include David Einhorn and Bill Ackman (again), as well as Glenn Tongue from T2 Partners, Barry Rosestein from JANA partners and more. The main thing is that the VAC is a community of experienced of thinkers that are wise to the mistakes most investors make and are willing to share those mistakes.

That said: We asked Tilson to share some of what he's learned over the years, and he came up with two common mistakes investors make pretty quickly. One is following the herd, and another is projecting a company or industry's immediate past into the future.

"If a company's earnings or stock have been going up people project that forever," he said. "The reality is that trees don't grow into the sky, and there's a very real thing called reversion to the mean."

Green Mountain Coffee is a perfect example of that. It was a hot product with patent protection. When that protection was gone, the company said that its business wouldn't change — obviously that wasn't the case.

Another mistake Tilson shared: Following Wall Street recommendations. Analysts are conflicted because the same companies they research can be their bank's clients. There's supposed to be Chinese Wall, but that isn't always the case, especially because companies can retaliate against analysts for bad ratings.

"Generally speaking they're the last people to warn investors on impending troubles," said Tilson.

There are exceptions to this analyst rule, of course, but more helpful than knowing who the exceptions are is speaking analyst.

"You have to be clever and read between the lines of what an analyst is really saying...It's like the Russians reading Pravda during the Communist era," he added.

If you're missing this round of wisdom, don't worry. Tilson and Schwartz will hold another Value Investing Congress in May, where you can learn how to decode.

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Investors are gathering at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan today and tomorrow to hear some of the world's top hedge fund managers present their investment picks at the annual Value Investing Congress (VIC). 

The event starts at 8:30 AM ET.

The conference speaker line-up features hedge fund heavyweights including, David Einhorn (Greenlight Capital), Bill Ackman (Pershing Square Capital Management), Glenn Tongue and Barry Rosentein (JANA Partners) among many others.  

Ackman is scheduled to speak at 5 p.m. today.  Einhorn, who presented his Green Mountain Coffee short in the past, will speak tomorrow. 

We're live blogging throughout this event, so refresh this page and check Clusterstock for all the latest news and investment picks coming from the VIC.

SEE ALSO: Here's how last year's VIC picks have performed >

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Today is the last day of the 8th annual Value Investing Congress in Manhattan. 

Investors from all over have gathered at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square to hear some of the brightest minds in the hedge fund industry share their best investment picks. 

The event begins at 8:30 a.m. ET.  

Hedge fund titan David Einhorn, the founder of Greenlight Capital, will share his best idea this morning.

Last year, Einhorn announced that he's shorting Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.  We're eager to find out what he'll be doing this year.  

We'll be live blogging throughout the event, so check Clusterstock for all the latest news and investment picks. 

SEE ALSO: Here's what top hedge fund managers picked yesterday >

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Hedge fund hot-shot David Einhorn, the founder of Greenlight Capital, gave his big investment ideas at the 8th annual Value Investing Congress (VIC) in Manhattan. 

He presented four ideas in 120 different slides along with some lessons he's learned. 

First, he revisited his Green Mountain Coffee Roasters short thesis, which he presented at last year's VIC. 

Since Einhorn's presentation last year, shares of Green Mountain have fallen more than 71%, according to data from Yahoo! Finance. 

Initially, GMCR's stock dropped more than 2% during Einhorn's presentation today.  It's now trading up more than 3%. 

"We think GMCR capex remains inexplicable," Einhorn said.

The hedge fund manager then shifted his presentation to General Motors, which he's long. The stock was last up more than 1.4%. 

He said that GM emerged from bankruptcy as a much healthier company.   

What's more is Einhorn said that GM should buy back the government stake.  The government own 500 million shares, he noted.  At $30 per share this stake can be purchased for $15 billion, which they can easily afford, he explained.  

Einhorn added that GM has a lot of upside in consensus earning estimates.  

His next investment idea was Cigna, which isn't a new idea for him.  The stock was last up 1.5%.

Overall, he said he likes HMOs and sees healthcare as a growing part of the economy.

As for Cigna in particular, he said that it's a "higher quality" business in the HMO group.  

"It trades at a low value at less than 8x next year's estimates," he explained.

Finally, he recommended shorting Chipotle.  This stock was last down more than 5.7%.

He pointed out that the biggest challenge Chipotle faces is competing with a resurgence in Taco Bell, which has a much lower price point.  

Einhorn explained how the Doritos Locos Tacos have been a huge success.  He said this gave Taco Bell strong momentum and that was before the Cantina Bell launch.  

He did not offer an Herbalife thesis today noting how the stock tanked after he asked a few questions on a conference call earlier this year.  Herbalife's stock was last up about $2, or 3.98%.

LIVE: David Einhorn And Other Top Hedge Fund Managers Are Presenting Their Top Investment Picks >

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Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn is currently speaking at the Value Investing Congress.

The famed short-seller has the power to move markets with his words.

So, the best thing that can happen for a stock is David Einhorn saying he won't bash it.

And Einhorn just said he won't be bashing Herbalife today.

In May, Einhorn chimed in on an Herbalife conference call, and his questions freaked out traders and investors who ran for the exits.

Check out what the stock is doing today.

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David Einhorn just unveiled GM as his new long idea at the Value Investing Congress.

The shares are rallying...

GM just reported September sales numbers today, missing estimates.

For Einhorn's comments on GM, click here >

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Legendary short-seller David Einhorn just told a crowd of people at the Value Investing Congress that he is betting against Chipotle.

Immediately, Chipotle's stock price dropped by 6 percent.

Einhorn thinks that Chipotle's got a big problem: Taco Bell.

Click here to see what the new menu is like >

Taco Bell recently launched its new Cantina Bell menu, which is meant to be more upscale than traditional Taco Bell fare, positioning itself more directly against fast-rising Chipotle's offerings. They enlisted Chef Lorena Garcia of Top Chef Masters fame to help them out.

Two years in the making, Taco Bell wants this menu to be of comparable quality with Chipotle, but much more affordable with a price point under $5.

Taco Bell recently announced that it has big plans for the new menu. It's testing items like a new quesadilla, a chicken Caesar burrito and revamped steak.

And you can't ignore the meteoric rise of the Doritos Locos Taco, which has been a massive success so far.

Einhorn is convinced this is nothing but bad news for Chipotle.

Taco Bell recently invited us to a sit-down dinner at the Empire State Building with Chef Garcia to try out the new menu.

The dinner was held at Taylor's office on the 38th floor of the Empire State Building

They had a very green-themed table set up, with Chef Garcia's spot at the head of the table. Admittedly, it's quite strange to actually sit down and eat Taco Bell at a big dinner table.

The bar had three of Chef Garcia's original cocktails — White Mango Sangria, Fresh Cucumber Mint Martini, and Watermelon-Cilantro Mojito

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Today, at the Value Investing Congress in NYC, famed short-seller David Einhorn announced that he had set his sights on Chipotle.

Part of the reason why, he said, was because Taco Bell's market share is increasing. The success of its new 'Doritos Locos Taco' and fresh looking (less expensive than Chipotle) Cantina Bell menu has the Yum Brands restaurant growing faster than its competitor at the moment, and Einhorn sees that continuing as consumers look for cheaper options.

That said: All of this is based on extensive research into the habits of Chipotle and Taco Bell customers, so we couldn't help but ask Einhorn... have you tried the Doritos Locos Taco?

The short answer is yes, David Einhorn has tried the Doritos Locos Taco, but he wasn't entirely enthusiastic about it. 

"I like the Cantina Bell menu," he said.

As for where he goes when he wants really good Mexican food — "we have a couple of good places in the neighborhood."

Since we don't know where Einhorn lives, that basically leaves us with little more than a thumbs up for the Cantina Bell Menu, but we'll take it.

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Damon Vickers, a private fund manager in Seattle, totally disagrees with legendary short-seller David Einhorn's view of battling Mexican fast food joints Taco Bell and Chipotle.

This morning, Einhorn took at stance against Chipotle, saying that it's due to increased — and more direct — competition from Taco Bell.

Vickers presents Einhorn's points, and his counter-arguments in an email:

"Chipotle's biggest challenge is Taco Bell"

This is ridiculous, Taco Bell has been around for years. Chipotle grew in part due to its quality and Taco Bell's lack thereof.

"Taco Bell's prices are cheaper than Chipotle"

Taco Bell is cheaper but so is pink slime vs. real hamburgers. Customers pay more because they want quality. It's the same reason someone buys at Whole Foods vs Safeway.

"Only 30% of customers prefer Chipotle vs Taco Bell's Cantina"

Another ridiculous statement… By in large the two customer bases are different. A customer who buys at Chipotle does so for quality reasons and health reasons. A customer who buys at Taco Bell does so because it's cheap — only. 

"Chipotle has an inability to raise prices"

Chipotle has the same ability or inability as any retailer regarding pricing. The statement that customers wont pay higher prices for quality… is false. I guess Whole Foods Market should close their doors and go home. People WILL and do pay for quality. This quality is something Taco Bell does not have, and regardless of the pretty pictures that fast food companies put on their ads… it's still garbage at the checkout.

NOW SEE: Here's The Upscale Taco Bell Menu That David Einhorn Thinks Will Cream Chipotle >

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