Friday, October 31, 2008

It is surprising how few people got the joke...

The hedge fund trade was long Porsche, short Volkswagen.  

Porsche after all owns many times its market cap in VW shares so the trade was obvious...

This has been a disastrous trade.  Plenty of hedge funds got hurt bad.  Most of them are still long Porsche.

When I suggested the only responsible trade was short Porshe I was teasing.  A serious tease because Porshe is playing with fire and there are ways that Porsche could go bust.  But it is not a position I would put on.  

Calling it "the only responsible trade" was a tease.  Pure and simple...

Sorry if it did not translate to print.




John Hempton

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

have you been sued yet? :p

October 31, 2008 at 11:33 PM
Anonymous said...

I thought it was clear. In any case, I really enjoy your blog. Keep up the quality, even if it means fewer posts. Thanks for sharing!

November 1, 2008 at 3:39 PM
Jonathan said...

Hi John, if you get a chance, could you (or anyone else so inclined) please explain why the long Porsche/short Volkswagen is an obvious trade when Porsche owns many times its market cap in VW shares? Regards, Jonathan.

November 2, 2008 at 2:48 PM

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