Irresistible to leave this moment alone - a thread to share some investment lessons:
1/ Size matters.
Melvin entered 2021 circa $12 billion in AUM and runs a highly levered balance sheet. That’s a lot of short exposure to move around if needed.
2/ WSB/Reddit captured a market inefficiency.
Stocks are not supposed to have over 100% short interest. Naked short selling is illegal. This set-up should never happen. Kudos to those who took advantage.
How it happened and what it means has rampant ramifications, but in this moment the individuals captured the anomaly.
3/ Be careful dismissing “in theory” for those rare moments when it becomes “in practice.”
Keynes said “markets can be irrational longer than you can be solvent.” I suspect this won't take down any significant hedge fund, but it definitely hurts.
3b/ Be careful dismissing “in theory” for those rare moments when it becomes “in practice.”
Academic finance teaches that “a short sale has unlimited downside and limited upside. Those events almost never play out, until they do.