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> ...all the while he was buying tons and tons of stocks which he turned into billions It's called activist investing. His fund did not buy stocks, but bought

> ...all the while he was buying tons and tons of stocks which he turned into billions It's called activist investing. His fund did not buy stocks, but bought Credit Default Swaps to the tune of $27 million USD. In the event that the markets dropped, they were awarded massive gains if they exit position. They gained $1.3 billion. Prior to exiting the position which was publicly released, he went on media outlets and promoted the idea of shutting down the economy. This is what activist investors do. They actively spread rumors that will help their positions. https://assets.pershingsquareholdings.com/2020/03/26122842/Pershing-Square-Capital-Management-L.P.-Releases-Letter-to-Investors-March-25-2020.pdf https://assets.pershingsquareholdings.com/2020/03/26122842/P...

rorykoehler 6y ago
How is this not market manipulation?
- zajd 6y ago
  It's called smart when you do these sorts of things with a 9 figure net wealth.
ericmay 6y ago
> It's called activist investing. I'd be really interested in learning more about the Olympic level mental gymnastics one has to go through to write this off as O.K. but then turn around and say that a bunch of random people on an open public forum saying to buy an over-shorted stock is market manipulation. They don't even have the purchasing power to make a difference here.
TheRealDunkirk 6y ago
I remember, a few years back, that Musk made news because he shut down someone asking questions in a public earnings report. The press was giving him a lot of flack about it. Then I kept reading, and found out the person who was trying to ask those questions represented a firm(s) that had large short positions on the stock, and was trying to cause the stock to dip. Musk knew what was going on, and headed it off. Seemed like he made a good call, but then the press made THAT the story instead.
partiallypro 6y ago
That is -not- what an activist investor is. An activist investor is someone that buys a large enough portion of a company in order to have a say in board operations, etc (even liquidation.) You can go on air and talk up your company, ever CEO, etc does that. That is expected. What he did was talk down positions he was going into. That is not activism.

rorykoehler 6y ago

How is this not market manipulation?

zajd 6y ago
It's called smart when you do these sorts of things with a 9 figure net wealth.

ericmay 6y ago

> It's called activist investing. I'd be really interested in learning more about the Olympic level mental gymnastics one has to go through to write this off as O.K. but then turn around and say that a bunch of random people on an open public forum saying to buy an over-shorted stock is market manipulation. They don't even have the purchasing power to make a difference here.

TheRealDunkirk 6y ago

I remember, a few years back, that Musk made news because he shut down someone asking questions in a public earnings report. The press was giving him a lot of flack about it. Then I kept reading, and found out the person who was trying to ask those questions represented a firm(s) that had large short positions on the stock, and was trying to cause the stock to dip. Musk knew what was going on, and headed it off. Seemed like he made a good call, but then the press made THAT the story instead.

partiallypro 6y ago

That is -not- what an activist investor is. An activist investor is someone that buys a large enough portion of a company in order to have a say in board operations, etc (even liquidation.) You can go on air and talk up your company, ever CEO, etc does that. That is expected. What he did was talk down positions he was going into. That is not activism.