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While this guy definitely appears to be guilty of a bunch of stuff, it's worth noting Hindenburg Research, the firm that paid for and published this article mak

While this guy definitely appears to be guilty of a bunch of stuff, it's worth noting Hindenburg Research, the firm that paid for and published this article makes money by discovering over-inflated investments, taking a short position, publicizing their research and profiting when the stock drops. Arguably, Hindenburg is providing a useful service in funding speculative research and then educating the marketplace when they discover a significant value disparity. While Hindenburg is often correct, just keep in mind what they publish isn't from a neutral POV.

yieldcrv 4y ago
No conflict = no interest It is impossible to reconcile "put your money where your mouth is" with "wait and now you have a conflict of interest!?" > "just keep in mind what they publish isn't from a neutral POV" even as a mere FYI disclaimer on their behalf, they already have their own disclaimer, twice > Initial Disclosure: After extensive research, we have taken a short position in shares of Enochian Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENOB). This report represents our opinion, and we encourage every reader to do their own due diligence.
samatman 4y ago
Oh, so you're saying the authors bet money on the truth of what they wrote? Good to know, my priors as to its accuracy went way up. You can go to prison for lying to make money, you know. It's not civil like libel, it's fraud.
- actionablefiber 4y ago
  It's mechanically possible to come up with fake accusations, take on the short position, publish the accusations, and cash out on the immediate stock drop, since just publishing the report is itself a market moving event, betting that the SEC either won't notice or won't bring down the hammer hard enough to wipe out their gains. This might have happened before with a different short selling institution in 2019 when an investigator working with a hedge fund published a report accusing GE of accounting fraud[1]. The accusations led nowhere and GE's stock rebounded rapidly after an initial ~10% drop. I couldn't find details on who the fund was or if they made money cashing out on the dip. I don't think that's what Hindenburg is doing here, and they have a pretty good track record of spotting fraud (IIRC they've called it correctly on a lot of bad companies in the past few years). [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markopolos#2019_General_Electric_fraud_allegation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markopolos#2019_General_...
- everybodyknows 4y ago
  Furthermore, malicious prosecution on weak evidence is entirely possible. Give the podcast Wolfpack Research a listen, starting with Episode 15 -- "Kurt Feshbach".
- martincmartin 4y ago
  Oh, so you're saying the authors bet money on the truth of what they wrote? Not quite. They bet money that they could convince other investors it was true. Big difference.
csours 4y ago
They do have a disclosure, but it is at the very bottom of the webpage.
- yieldcrv 4y ago
  and right after their bullet point summary at the top.
rossdavidh 4y ago
Truth, but: 1) they say so, in sizeable font, at the bottom of the article 2) they called very well that Musk would try to back out or get a better price on Twitter; they are often correct

yieldcrv 4y ago

No conflict = no interest It is impossible to reconcile "put your money where your mouth is" with "wait and now you have a conflict of interest!?" > "just keep in mind what they publish isn't from a neutral POV" even as a mere FYI disclaimer on their behalf, they already have their own disclaimer, twice > Initial Disclosure: After extensive research, we have taken a short position in shares of Enochian Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENOB). This report represents our opinion, and we encourage every reader to do their own due diligence.

samatman 4y ago

Oh, so you're saying the authors bet money on the truth of what they wrote? Good to know, my priors as to its accuracy went way up. You can go to prison for lying to make money, you know. It's not civil like libel, it's fraud.

actionablefiber 4y ago
It's mechanically possible to come up with fake accusations, take on the short position, publish the accusations, and cash out on the immediate stock drop, since just publishing the report is itself a market moving event, betting that the SEC either won't notice or won't bring down the hammer hard enough to wipe out their gains. This might have happened before with a different short selling institution in 2019 when an investigator working with a hedge fund published a report accusing GE of accounting fraud[1]. The accusations led nowhere and GE's stock rebounded rapidly after an initial ~10% drop. I couldn't find details on who the fund was or if they made money cashing out on the dip. I don't think that's what Hindenburg is doing here, and they have a pretty good track record of spotting fraud (IIRC they've called it correctly on a lot of bad companies in the past few years). [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markopolos#2019_General_Electric_fraud_allegation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markopolos#2019_General_...
everybodyknows 4y ago
Furthermore, malicious prosecution on weak evidence is entirely possible. Give the podcast Wolfpack Research a listen, starting with Episode 15 -- "Kurt Feshbach".
martincmartin 4y ago
Oh, so you're saying the authors bet money on the truth of what they wrote? Not quite. They bet money that they could convince other investors it was true. Big difference.

csours 4y ago

They do have a disclosure, but it is at the very bottom of the webpage.

yieldcrv 4y ago
and right after their bullet point summary at the top.

rossdavidh 4y ago

Truth, but: 1) they say so, in sizeable font, at the bottom of the article 2) they called very well that Musk would try to back out or get a better price on Twitter; they are often correct