Bill Ackman runs a hedge fund and was a guest on CNBC right at the beginning of the US getting hit with the pandemic proclaiming travel industry going to go downhill while having made bets on that happening. [0] For those outside the US, CNBC is a business/financial/stock market news channel.
> “America will end as we know it. I’m sorry to say so, unless we take this option,” he told CNBC on March 18, five days before ending his bet against the market. “We need to shut it down now. ... This is the only answer.”
He then made $2B a week later. I would assume most guests on that network are there to make statements to try and sway the market in some way to their favor. You just don't know if they are long or short on whatever they are talking about so without those disclosures.
If you think more online based news is better like Motley Fool. They are also registered as a Hedge Fund with the SEC [1]. I can't see/find what their specific holdings are on the SEC site but isn't that a conflict of interest to publish "news" or investment information and manage over $100M?
Isn't this just exactly what we would expect though? If I think company X is gonna crash, I will short it and tell people. That's not dishonest, its 2 different but aligned ways of expressing my opinion...
Given the size of the industry, its not like he talked it into oblivion. He might have been able to do that with a single company, but we didn't stop flying because he said so, we did it because of covid...
It can be dishonest to try to persuade someone of something without revealing that you have a nonobvious interest in them being so persuaded.
It's not dishonest to talk down a stock you are shorting provided you are open about your interest, but a news outfit concealing such a fact definitely crosses the line for me.
> “America will end as we know it. I’m sorry to say so, unless we take this option,” he told CNBC on March 18, five days before ending his bet against the market. “We need to shut it down now. ... This is the only answer.”
He then made $2B a week later. I would assume most guests on that network are there to make statements to try and sway the market in some way to their favor. You just don't know if they are long or short on whatever they are talking about so without those disclosures.
If you think more online based news is better like Motley Fool. They are also registered as a Hedge Fund with the SEC [1]. I can't see/find what their specific holdings are on the SEC site but isn't that a conflict of interest to publish "news" or investment information and manage over $100M?
[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/25/bill-ackman-exits-market-hed...
[1] https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1512814