Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered. That old Wall Street adage warns against letting greed get in the way of making sound investment decisions. Most retail investors are only familiar with the bull side of making money, and rightly so. Shorting is often akin to speculating because the longer-term trend of the stock market is always growth. Even if you have a sure short, people’s greed far exceeds your margin limits.
Shorting companies is the domain of sophisticated institutional investors who have the capital and platforms required to make money off of other people’s stupidity. One such firm is Citron Research.
About Citron Research
If you’re long a stock and Citron writes a hit piece on it, you’re wise to start questioning your thesis. While the firm has generated its share of controversy, they have made enough successful calls that whatever they say merits a closer look. The criticism largely surrounds the fact that Citron takes a short position in a company and then – while openly disclosing their financial interest – shares with a large audience the details of why they’re short. Usually, this comes in the form of a well-researched investigative report that proves their thesis. The extent to which shares fall afterwards doesn’t prove the thesis was correct. Typically, proof of failure is regulatory scrutiny or even bankruptcy.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. We’ve seen enough