what does everyone think of chanos shorts/longs? how have they performed. I cant find info on his overall performance both long/short.
Gundlach call him a genius, but from what i’ve read he’s a perma bear that hasnt really been all that great.
CAG of 2.1% from 85 to 05 versus 12.7% S&P, why do people speak so highly of him?
http://www.valuewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Chanos-Performance1.pdf
He’s one ugly motherfucjer
His call on Valeant though.
What about his call on TSLA though?
You don’t measure a short fund versus the s&p. Being all short and having a positive return is quite impressive by itself imo. In his podcast on Masters in Business, he covers how they measure performance vs an appropriate index. I can’t recall the specifics.
I like him and think there is a lot to learn there. Successful shorting seems to be an extremely different mindset than long investing.
I don’t think he is 100% short… they do release their long positions as well so it’s probably short-biased and not 100% short only. Anyway I don’t think anybody should be impressed with 2.1% CAG no matter what strategy it is.
They have other funds that go long. I didn’t look closely but the returns you cited sounded like their short fund.
So you wouldn’t accept insurance that also pays you premiums? Seems strange you are so against this guy based on one number you don’t seem to be putting in context.
Edit I clicked your link and it’s indeed the short only fund
2.1% for a short fund is prolly amazin. considering the average would be -10% if it was 100% short.
I dunno 2.1% and amazing should not be in the same sentence together, even holding treasuries would’ve given you a much better CAG with much better risk adjusted return or absolute return.
Are you a troll? Your profile says CFA but you don’t seem to really understand this whole portfolio analysis thing… I’m starting to think I’m wasting my cell phone battery
^^^It’s silly - Chanos is widely regarded as being one of the most thorough and insightful managers. His research, experience, and track record speaks for itself. Anyone’s free to disagree on his merits though, that’s what makes a market.
I think Chanos is great. The market is always biased against the short-seller as assets have historically appreciated over time. It is a tough job to be short.
He is mostly an accounting guy and does well finding poor accounting with firms. Enron is probably his best example. He did a really good job exposing the company HP bought, Autonomy, a few years ago. That was a complete write-off for HP if I remember correctly due to poor accounting. He has had a lot of good calls over time. In a bull market a short seller will have egg on his/her face quite a bit but I have always loved listening to him speak.
Well not his recent calls. He thinks he can predict the drug debates winners and losersz And he’s calling out companies with high debt prolly a valeant play. Overall I think he is smart, so if he is shorting then pay attention to the why. If it’s accounting he is prolly right, if not I’d prolly ignore it. As for shorting as a business model. You’d have to be a sadist to be 100 percent short. I think ppl just hire him for his research, there was an article where a pension fund was talking about it.
I am not sure people just hire him for his research. Perhaps the miscommunication is that no one would actually invest all their money in this short only fund. It is used as an insurance policy that pays the holder premiums AND allows them to have more long exposure. Maybe I’m taking for granted I’ve heard him explain this several times. Here is a good article covering the jist of why that fund is so valuable.
makes sense. its like 2% from his shorts + return from going long to offset shorts so say we assume 10% average returns. that’s 12% returns.