The Big Short 2.0 : How Hedge Funds Profited Off the Pain of Malls – The New York Times
Mr. Icahn, whose hostile takeover of TWA in the 1980s established him as a major dealmaker, has made $1.3 billion on the trade since that meeting. And the investors that made the trade within Ms. McKee s firm, MP Securitized Credit Partners, more than doubled their money. Mr. Icahn and MP are among a handful of investors who have, collectively, made hundreds of millions of dollars on similar trades this year.
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There is something discomfiting about the idea of getting fantastically rich off someone else s misfortune, which is what happens when a short trade or bet against a stock or industry succeeds. The contrast is even more startling given that the pandemic, which has devastated the economy and hurt the livelihoods of millions, has turbocharged the bets that Mr. Icahn, Ms. McKee and others placed on the downfall of malls.
But on Wall Street, such brazenness is celebrated. Investors love little more than a contrarian bet that pays off, a combination of math and seeming magic that allows them to find a market disruption before everyone else and score a big win.
via www.nytimes.com