Saturday, September 20, 2008

Soros Stocks Up On Lehman

This is a story from August 15th so it is a little old. However, it ties in with this story about the interrelations among climate change profiteer Al Gore, climatologist Jim Hansen, and the financial firm Lehman Brothers. So lets look at the connection between George Soros and the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers.

George Soros thinks the world may be in for a long recession and that housing prices will continue to fall more than most economists expect. He thinks a "superbubble" has been forming for 25 years—and it's currently collapsing.

But he thinks Lehman Brothers is going places.

The notable philanthropist, political activist, and hedge fund investor who made a killing on smart currency bets in the 1990s, disclosed in a filing yesterday that his fund raised its stake in the troubled investment bank from 10,000 shares to 9.5 million shares during the second quarter.

The stake, worth about $188 million, comes to 1.4 percent of Lehman's outstanding shares.

Let's hope he's in it for the long haul, because the trade doesn't seem to be paying off so far. Lehman shares started the second quarter in the mid-$40s, falling to $19.81 by June 30.
Lehman Brothers is trading today at about 21¢. Which is to say George has lost all his money. Unless he made money covering the positions of naked shorts. Which is way more complicated than I want to explain here. You will have to look it up.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

2 comments:

linearthinker said...

Dollar to a donut he did.

Anonymous said...

in my limited experience, even if he covered with put and call strategy, in order to make money he still had to have uncovered positions or it would be a net nuetral. also im not sure he could have sold/bought enough puts and calls to equal the money he had on the line.

I think he lost alot of money. probably not all that was on the line but I cant believe he was a net winner on this deal