Did Stevie Cohen Help Crush Whitney Tilson?
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Hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson has had a rough year. And if he read what we read yesterday you may find him today crouched over a garbage can tossing his cookies.
Not only has Mr. Tilson been short all the wrong stocks, but his public disclosures of his short sales on CNBC and other media may have contributed to his losses.
In a rare interview, noted at New York Times DealBook, hedge fund titan Steven Cohen of SAC Capital noted that two of his favorite stocks are Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and OpenTable (Nasdaq: OPEN) - two stocks Mr. Tilson has been short up until recently. In a recent letter to investors, Tilson said he covered his Netflix short.
If you read between the lines, you could interpret that Mr. Cohen, a tape reader and trader at heart, helped orchestrate a major short squeeze in both of these stocks.
While Mr. Tilson has suffered some major setbacks with his short sales, he is not the only one to have lost serious money shorting stocks. In the same interview, Mr. Cohen discussed that one of his biggest mistakes was shorting Volkswagen shares in October 2008 - causing him a $250 million loss in a week, which was later walked down to a $75 million loss.
Although Mr. Tilson's image has suffered for his bad short sales, we would also like to point out a magnificent long trade he made in BP (NYSE: BP). In the heart of the Gulf Oil spill, when many pundits said BP would go bankrupt, Tilson had the balls to buy the stock and discussed his trade numerous times on CNBC. Tilson bought that stock when there was "blood on the Street."
Not only has Mr. Tilson been short all the wrong stocks, but his public disclosures of his short sales on CNBC and other media may have contributed to his losses.
In a rare interview, noted at New York Times DealBook, hedge fund titan Steven Cohen of SAC Capital noted that two of his favorite stocks are Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and OpenTable (Nasdaq: OPEN) - two stocks Mr. Tilson has been short up until recently. In a recent letter to investors, Tilson said he covered his Netflix short.
If you read between the lines, you could interpret that Mr. Cohen, a tape reader and trader at heart, helped orchestrate a major short squeeze in both of these stocks.
While Mr. Tilson has suffered some major setbacks with his short sales, he is not the only one to have lost serious money shorting stocks. In the same interview, Mr. Cohen discussed that one of his biggest mistakes was shorting Volkswagen shares in October 2008 - causing him a $250 million loss in a week, which was later walked down to a $75 million loss.
Although Mr. Tilson's image has suffered for his bad short sales, we would also like to point out a magnificent long trade he made in BP (NYSE: BP). In the heart of the Gulf Oil spill, when many pundits said BP would go bankrupt, Tilson had the balls to buy the stock and discussed his trade numerous times on CNBC. Tilson bought that stock when there was "blood on the Street."
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