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Fund Manager Ackman Teases Investors With Mystery Trade


Parsad

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Ackman has a high IQ but *perhaps* he is straying outside his "circle of competence".

 

It will be interesting to watch.

 

He claims that he may make 100 times his money on this play.

 

Can someone explain how he would achieve this?

I certainly would not be impressed if I was an investor.

 

He is like making the trade through something called a currency swaption - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaption. His risk exposure is likely to be very asymmetric.

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I really like this Ackman trade.  BTW if you cant get options on the HKD than you can buy the HKD using Interactive Brokers at 30:1 margin.  A 30% gain like he expects would produce a 900% gain at that leverage.  Not bad but no 100:1 gain as he projects in the options.

 

I think his idea is even better than the Japan CDS trade that Kyle Bass has on, which actually have increase from 104bp when i posted on this thread to 124bp. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Ackman's Pershing Square to Announce Largest-Ever Investment

 

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324170004578638470384339086.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews

 

 

...

Mr. Ackman's firm is investing more than $2 billion in a U.S.-based industrial company, people familiar with the matter said. The identity of the firm remained unclear Tuesday.

 

The investment will represent nearly 10% of the company, which has a market capitalization of more than $20 billion, said the people, who added that the company's stock over the past several years has underperformed the broader market.

...

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Ackman Says Pershing Square Takes Stake in Air Products

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/ackman-says-pershing-square-takes-9-8-stake-in-air-products.html

 

...

 

The hedge-fund firm’s stake in Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Air Products cost about $2.05 billion and is now valued at about $2.2 billion, Ackman, 47, said today in an e-mail. Air Products, which had a market value of $22.1 billion as of yesterday, is the previously unidentified target described by Ackman in a July 8 letter to clients.

 

...

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Guest wellmont

Ackman Says Pershing Square Takes Stake in Air Products

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/ackman-says-pershing-square-takes-9-8-stake-in-air-products.html

 

The hedge-fund firm’s stake in Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Air Products cost about $2.05 billion and is now valued at about $2.2 billion, Ackman, 47, said today in an e-mail. Air Products, which had a market value of $22.1 billion as of yesterday, is the previously unidentified target described by Ackman in a July 8 letter to clients.

 

...

 

...you would think that with the HLF debacle he would learn to just do things quietly. now that he has established his position at lower prices, he is "inviting" the herd to come in and drive the price up to counter his losses in hlf. I wonder what his record would be if he did not have the access to the media that he does?

 

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Ackman Says Pershing Square Takes Stake in Air Products

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/ackman-says-pershing-square-takes-9-8-stake-in-air-products.html

 

The hedge-fund firm’s stake in Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Air Products cost about $2.05 billion and is now valued at about $2.2 billion, Ackman, 47, said today in an e-mail. Air Products, which had a market value of $22.1 billion as of yesterday, is the previously unidentified target described by Ackman in a July 8 letter to clients.

 

...

 

...you would think that with the HLF debacle he would learn to just do things quietly. now that he has established his position at lower prices, he is "inviting" the herd to come in and drive the price up to counter his losses in hlf. I wonder what his record would be if he did not have the access to the media that he does?

 

Well any rational person would assume this type of behavior is illegal...but apparently not!  Cheers!

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How is ackman doing anything wrong/shaddy?  I may not do it personally, but i don't see why its morally wrong to announce a stake in something, especially if most of his buying is already done.  If people want to invest fine, if they want to take the other side (like many did in the herbalife situation), then thats fine.  I doubt ackman cares all that much if someone takes the other side. (as a side note, didn't Air Products actually force  the issue and make ackman announce his holdings)

 

He not in the same exact mold as Buffett, but i don't understand peoples hate for this guy...He practically doubled annual returns of the market since inception, and most of his interviews etc seem very logical and value based.  He's actually one of the people i most enjoy listening to.

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I mean, I suppose one could view it as illegal to profit off information that may be perceived as material and non-public.

 

At the same time, guys like Ackman and Icahn have built a name and credibility that the markets seek to evaluate in real time so it no longer strikes me as a big deal when a position is announced with great fanfare and the remora bite.

 

But the first time I learned that Icahn will trade around and sell into the price spike associated with an announced position, I had a hard time reconciling those two sets of facts.

 

Seems fair to get paid a little upfront, fix the co and get paid the rest upon a successful exit.

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HLF up 9% and JCP down 10%...not the best day for Ackman.

 

Are the screws being tightened.  I remember when they were circling Berkowitz.

 

Presumably Ackman's capital is more stable than Berkowitz's -- then again, with fewer investors, maybe it's the opposite.

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