저자: FinanciallyAware채널진행자 · 외국인
요약 보기
빌 애크먼이 코로나19 시장 폭락 전 하이일드 신용지수 숏으로 2700만 달러를 투자해 26억 달러 이익을 냈다는 뉴스를 계기로, 금융 유튜버·전문가 조언을 맹신하지 말라는 메시지를 전하는 영상. 배경: 애크먼은 퍼싱스퀘어 헤지펀드 운용자이며 과거 허벌라이프 숏(카를 아이칸과 충돌)과 밸리언트 파마 투자 실패 사례가 있다. 발언 내용: 애크먼은 3월 23일 숏을 청산하며 강세 발언을 했지만, 불과 일주일 전 CNBC 등에서는 '지옥이 온다'며 미국 30일 봉쇄를 요구했고 힐튼 등 보유 종목이 0으로 갈 수 있다고 말했다. 진행자는 그가 자신의 포지션(book)을 옹호하는 방향으로 말한다고 평가했다. 예시 비교: 중개인·부동산 중개인이 매수·매도 어느 쪽을 물어도 '좋다'고 답하는 것과 같이, 방송 전문가들은 자기 포지션을 홍보하는 경향이 있다. 평가: 진행자는 애크먼의 행동이 기술적으로 불법은 아니지만 '지저분(sleazy)'하며, 패닉을 부추겼을 가능성이 있다고 본다. 그러나 방송 전문가 전반도 비슷하다고 지적한다. 결론적 교훈: 방송 전문가의 매수·매도 조언은 그들의 이해관계를 고려해 걸러 들어야 한다.
다듬은 글
A lot of people have been seeing this headline in financial news about how Bill Ackman turned $27 million into $2.6 billion during the coronavirus crisis. This video is not really about how he did it or anything like that to try to praise him, but it's kind of an example of sleazy Wall Street behavior and not to pick on Bill Ackman, it's just another example of why you should never listen to the so-called gurus or experts or people on the financial channels that tell you what you should buy or what you should sell or what you should do because usually they don't have your best interest at heart.
They have their own best interest at heart and this is a perfect example of it. So, last month he uh Bill Ackman bought $27 million in shorting these credit indexes, high-yield credit indexes and that they would pay off if the spreads got a lot wider and they did and he covered his short positions on Monday March 23rd.
So, and made $2.6 billion in proceeds. So, who's Bill Ackman? He is the one who runs the Pershing Square Holdings hedge fund and although most hedge fund managers like to stay out of the limelight, Bill Ackman seems to be the opposite. And so, if you if you haven't followed the last I don't know, 5 6 7 years or so uh Bill Ackman's name has been in in the financial news a lot specifically for two really big uh stories and the first one is his Herbalife disaster, okay?
He was shorting Herbalife back in December 2012 and he even is famously had a a 3-hour presentation at an investment conference about how he called the nutritional supplements company a pyramid scheme that he thought would eventually go to zero. Now remember that term eventually go to zero because apparently he likes to uh use that to his advantage.
So, anyway, uh he shorted the stock around $45 when he first started shorting it and he shorted about a billion dollars worth. And the shares went up around $92 in 1 year. They went up 35% and uh what happened was a rival hedge fund manager Carl Icahn uh he went and got long Herbalife while Bill Ackman was short Herbalife.
So, they were kind of battling against each other and Carl Icahn actually won and made a bunch of money and Bill Ackman I guess lost I don't know how much he lost, but he eventually covered his shorts and you know, that was the end of that, but I mean that that story was in the news all the time about you know, first he short, then the thing goes up, then Carl Icahn comes in and they're you know, they are trading personal barbs with each other.
Ackman saying Carl Icahn unfortunately does not have a good reputation for being a handshake guy and Icahn telling Ackman, I wouldn't invest with you if you were the last man on earth. So, it was kind of like a a episode of WWE wrestling for the financial markets and Wall Street. And uh so, that was one thing that really got his name out there and as far back as 2012 and another one was Valeant Pharmaceuticals and he entered Valeant Pharmaceuticals around $180 a share and took a 8.5% stake in the company.
And uh this time the company itself was doing channel stuffing and all kinds of accusations of fraud and uh his stock went down that he lost his his entire position uh about $3 million on his entire position and he's eventually sold it all out March 13th, 2017. So, that was you know, only 3 years ago and uh so, now 3 years later, he's making a hundred times his money on this trade.
Now, keep in mind that that 26 million is a small amount for I think he has about $11 billion under under management um and so, that was more like a hedge that to hedge his the rest of his stocks that he holds in case of a market downturn for the from the coronavirus. So while he did make that $2.6 billion, the stocks that he was holding also lost a lot of value when the stock market went down because he did not sell them.
He was still holding them. Uh but now, after he covered, you see he says he is very bullish and an aggressive buyer. And he says all kinds of things about, you know, betting on America or something like that. Uh we're very bullish. Uh what else did he say? Um all kinds of things about how great and bullish he is on America and how it's going to come back and Hilton is arguably one of the greatest hotel companies in the world that he you know, he bought a whole bunch of Hilton and Starbucks and Berkshire Hathaway.
So, he uh he was really talking everything up just on Monday, but you know, people have such a short memory that even 1 week ago, a lot of them already forgot what the hell he was saying and he wasn't he wasn't bullish then when he was short the market. So, what was he saying back then a week ago? Here, just 1 week not even a week before he covered all his shorts he called on Trump to shut down the US for the next 30 days.
Okay, so he short the market and is trying to talk it down. He went on CNBC, he went on Twitter he said something about uh hell is coming or something along those lines. I mean, he was really talking everything down and also saying that a lot of these companies could go to zero talking about Hilton and the same stocks that he was now buying a week later and and buying more of he was talking all of these stocks down saying that they could go to zero and all this bad stuff and then they need to shut the country down for a month and everything.
So what do you think about that? Okay, here he says all right, days after CNBC appearance he said tearfully warned that hell is coming and begged the White House to shut down the country for 30 days. He was knee-deep in his bet against the markets that netted him $2.6 billion. And uh he even brought in his poor father into this.
Uh let's see, here he said uh called into CNBC the next morning in an emotional interview, he claimed to have locked down in late February after realizing how deadly the pandemic was going to be for people like his immunocompromised septuagenarian septuagenarian, I don't know how to pronounce that father.
What does that mean? His father's 70 something? Uh anyway says everyone feels, you know, 99% chance I'll be okay, but it's not you, it's the person you give it to. I'm not going to kill my father, okay? Now during this CNBC appearance and all that, he didn't say, oh by the way, I really hope the market tanks and the bond market goes really bad and the spreads blow out because I'm short a whole bunch of it.
Uh it wouldn't have had the same impact on his uh CNBC appearance if he said that. And uh so, that's that's the kind of lesson that I want you to take away from this because what he did, you know, with the with the Herbalife when he was short, he was saying it's a pyramid scheme going to zero during a 3-hour presentation at a uh investors conference and all this stuff.
So, he has no qualms in talking his book, which means whichever way his position is, that's the way he's going to talk on TV. That's going to be his argument. It's kind of like uh if you ask a uh your your stock broker, is is now a good time to buy stocks? They're always going to say yes. They're not going to say, "Yeah, uh wait a year.
I don't really want your commissions right now." Or uh a real estate agent, if you ask him, is now a good time to buy a house? They'll say, "Absolutely." And if they get a call from somebody the same day and say, is now a good time to sell a house? They'll also say, "Absolutely." cuz what they're really thinking is, is now a good time to make a commission?
And the answer is always yes. So, these people that you see on TV, that write uh articles, that are on CNBC or these other financial news programs, they're always on there to talk their book. Whichever way they are, if they're long Exxon, they're going to be talking about how great Exxon is. If they're short Apple, they're going to be talking about the problems Apple's going to have and why their stock's going to go down or whatever.
So, is what Bill Ackman did sleazy? I think so. I mean, I think he definitely tried to talk the market down. Was the market going down anyway? Yes, but did he add to the panic? Sure. Uh for the people who watch CNBC and follow his Twitter and all this stuff, you got a lot of press out of this. So, um I don't know what, you know, how many percentage points on the S&P this added to in the downdraft, who knows?
That's very debatable. Uh what he did isn't technically illegal, but I think it's kind of sleazy. But again, it's not much sleazier than what all these other experts are constantly doing on the news programs anyway. So, I hope you like this video. Leave me a comment if you think what he did is illegal or just sleazy or just totally par for the course on Wall Street.
And if you like this video, give me a thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't done so already. Thanks for watching.
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