One of the Largest Trading Losses of all time was Realized Today...
If you haven't been following the financial news this morning, Bill Ackman of Pershing Square finally sold his firm's rather large stake in Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
Why is that big news?
Well, they/he had previously amassed a massive stake with a cost average around $196 per share over the course of the past couple years. That wouldn't be such a bad thing if Valeant wasn't trading near $10 per share currently.
In a filing that came out after the market closed yesterday it was revealed that Ackman had sold out the last of his position with a cost average of $11 per share. That represents roughly a 94% loss on investment. That is staggering, but the dollar amount is what is really mind blowing here though...
Bill Ackman and Pershing Square lost roughly $4 billion dollars on their Valeant Pharmaceuticals position. Making it one of the largest trading losses of all time. There have only been a handful of larger losses by individual people or firms, ever.
Bill Ackman and Pershing Square say the massive loss will come in handy the rest of the year to offset gains for tax purposes and allow them to focus their energy more on existing investments. Both of which are probably true statements. However, only in America can a person spin a $4 billion dollar loss (of other people's money) into a good thing.
Ackman has faced heat in the past several years because of his "wrong" bet in J.C. Penney, his short position in Herbalife that went the wrong direction, and now his massive loss in Valeant. Surprisingly for him, most of his investors don't seem to be losing confidence in him, yet.
Let's hope Steem doesn't ever become one of the largest losses ever for anyone! :)
Sources:
Image Sources:
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/the-lesson-from-bill-ackmans-valeant-vrx-woes-cm760518
Follow: @jrcornel
reminds me
Gross... that does not look like fun...
Wow...please kindly accept my 3cents upvote if that!
I guess with such exposure and "credentials" he's just about to be hired by the government or a financial institution of giant magnitude!?!
This is huge to be able to "spin" around a 4 billion lost with the taxes... Mind-blowing!!! thanks for sharing and namaste :)
Haha yes he probably will be some day, afterall they have better trading records ;)
Why I only traded this short last year rather than holding it short is beyond me. Making $ is good, but this was an obvious trainwreck as soon as the investigations began.
Yea, sometimes when you have a profit it is hard to let it ride... especially when it's on the short side...
donland trump will hire him as the next fed reserve chairman.
Haha, that is certainly possible the way Washington and Wallstreet have been a revolving door...
Wasn't he treasure secretary in Obama's cabinet? That could explain how gov debt doubled under his presidency.
if you have any exposure to currencies, or equities... beware the ides of march. If you are not ready for a total system collapse, you are a brainwashed person who has bought the lie. Good luck when they shut down your bank cards.
I am not sure about all of that, but I do think the stock market is going to have a large correction either in the April/May time frame or in the September/October time frame...
It's going to have a correction, like NOW, and a total COLLAPSE by end of summer. Your thoughts and feelings have nothing on my hundreds of hours of hard research and analysis.
thank information @jrcornel.
excellent.
good luck.!!
Thanks!
youre welcome
LOL- at $4 Billion in loses 'coming in handy'
Amazing he is not put in the same category as Dennis Gartman. Zerohedge is absolutely merciless with him but Ackman gets a pass...
We will see for how long? Lose a billion here a billion there and pretty soon it's real money... :)
Heh, Steem already is my largest investment loss ever (on paper anyway, I haven't powered down at all). But I guess losing a couple BTC pales in comparison to $4 billion... holy crud. And if Steem price ever recovers, this will flip flop and turn into my best investment ever, so for me holding lots of Steem Power continues to be an attractive risk / reward play.
Haha yep, same here. I am not sure when a good time to buy more would be, but hopefully some where around here turns out to be the bottom...
Here's hoping, got my fingers crossed!
"Let's hope Steem doesn't ever become one of the largest losses ever for anyone! :)" - Looking at the price history one can only laugh at this. From few dollars to under 10 cents, that's a huge % loss. Also Dan is leaving the project now, just like he did with bitshares and if you dare, go look at the price history of bitshares and you might glance on the future of steem price also. Only chance of recouping losses for those who are reading is be in early on Dan's next project, before the pump and get out before the dump.
Well I sincerely hope you are incorrect about a lot of this. Steem has a lot of things going for it that BTS never had... hopefully it has enough that this isn't the beginning of the end of it.
I'm sure Steem will see some positive price action after few year hiatus on ground floor, or should I say hopeful. Nothing is guaranteed. But it is telling that almost every other alt is making huge gains but steemit is not and bitshares also is making measly rise even after 2 years of being very cheap.
That's actually not a bad idea. I might keep an eye on what Dan's up to and do exactly this. I often wish I had heard of Steemit before last summer's big spike. Just imagine getting in on the ground floor and waking up one day to find you've magically become an influential whale.
Ackman is interesting. In my opinion his assessment of Herbalife is spot on but the FTC only slapped Herbalife on the wrist for their scam. $200 Million Settlement and that stock has become a pissing ground for these baller hedge fund managers.
Yep. That is kind of what Icahn was saying without actually saying it. It didn't really matter if Ackman was right or not, there was a good chance the SEC and the FTC weren't going to step in which meant that the stock wasn't going to go to zero. Ackman may turn out to be right in the long run with his assessment of Herbalife, but it will probably be long after he covers his short's though. :)
I think you are right. I would love to see Herbalife go down the tubes but they sell a very powerful thing. HOPE
Yep, I had a few friends that got started on those multi level marketing things and stuck with them for years and eventually made some really good money off of them. Enough money to the point where they made it their full time job and worked from home. That isn't the norm though. Although I think if people would really work at those things and treat them like an actual job there would be more success stories... everyone is just after that quick buck and when it doesn't happen they shout SCAM!
Yeah I know what you are saying. I actually know a lot about that industry because I resell a lot of stuff online and it isn't uncommon for me to run across bulk lots of MLM products. Some of it has decent resell value online but for people who are distributors it is a 99% failure rate a lot of times and the ones that are saying they make a lot of money often aren't really making near as much as they pretend to be making. They are always selling a dream and to uphold that they have to pretend to be more successful than they actually are. Also a lot of the companies fabricate these people into being in an artificially successful situation. They will place large downlines under people they want to promote but for someone to go in and replicate the success of the top ones is statistically less likely than winning the Powerball jackpot. The numbers are insanely stacked against the people who sign up for those.