Monday, December 19, 2016

Is Short-Seller Muddy Waters Losing Its Mojo?

From Barron's Asia Stocks to Watch:
Carson Block, the founder of short seller Muddy Waters,  will target more stocks in Hong Kong given the financial hub is fertile ground for dubious companies.

Block told Bloomberg‘s Lisa Pham:
“I’m always a fan of shorting total frauds and Hong Kong has its share so it will always be a place for us,” Block said, commenting generally about listed companies in the city. “The trading volumes generally aren’t that good and I think there are a lot of stock manipulations in Hong Kong and that’s a function of the volumes being poor.”
Unfortunately, Muddy Waters’ recent track record is not good....MORE
At least he's talking the right stuff.
In a bull market the only place to risk a short is in the questionable companies whereas in a bear going after the valuation shorts can also give you an acceptable risk/reward.

The Hang Seng index is down a couple thousand points from the September highs but still shows a few ticks of profit from the first trading day of 2016.