now the job is to not be so critical of myself!! haha the story reminds me of when livermoore was asked to manipulate a stock.. It was leaked that he would be working with the inside syndicate to manipulate the stock. The floor took hold of information and started buying up the stock... Jesse sold it to them! He distributed to all of the floor who wanted in on the deal.. of course the floor was holding the illquid bag of shit at that point.. i wonder what the IV and the term structure on it looks like in this stock..
My money's on Ackman as he's not simply stroking his ego over some childish vendetta. Icahn needs to retire to S. Florida.
No f*cking way in hell that Icahn makes a tender for this dogsh*t scam. He would have to pay $80 to get it done. Pay 20x for a Ponzi. Apparently Icahn has not had to file (<10%) and nobody knows (he's not telling) how much he bought, while Ackman's position is 100% transparent. Ackman's SHLD vehicle was ghastly, but he's got this one right. Still dumb money to be on either side of this trade, IMO.
If Ackman was a little better on TV .. he would have said.. how do we know your not dumping your long position on the public right now.. all this talk of a short squeeze is just the liquidity creation he needs to get out.. either way.. now i'm the talking head.. haha
Well the stock hasn't squeezed much... it's sitting under $45 and has gone nowhere in the last two weeks. Ackman's at least $10 in the black. It's couch money for Icahn that allows him to bad-mouth Ackman with little to nothing on the line. And you can't squeeze a cash-long.
I agree. "Ican't" came across as a bumbling old git. The whining about being bullied on air, oh the irony, pure comedy.
i bet there is truth to the statement Ackman made about Icahn thinking he would end up bust and not have to deal with him.. its like borrowing money from guys that are about to go out of business. no business.. no litigation risk.. plus there is alot of optionality to doing this to guys as you know alot of guys do bust.. and the the payout over time might have a postive skew.. the deal was for a 50 percent profit .. and Icahn renigged because he probably was like "fu(k that kid, he will go bust and disappear anyway" the real deal is Icahn is just posturing push backs to Ackman for the so called "handshake" bullshit deal.. Icahn fucked him, cause he can.. now he is threatening to ruin him just to push him off.. and respectively he is pushing CNBC off by calling them bullys and not letting him talk.. .. empty threats from the old man.. if he could squeeze Ackman for money.. he will.. i just don't think HLF is a good platform to do it on.. like atticus said.. HLF is a dirty shitty ponsi scheme..
I am apprehensive to wade into this one from a trading standpoint. My inclination is to let the billionaires duke it out. A lot of sellers of the 40 puts. But maybe an upside fly in Feb could work, fade the nascent pop in vol. Would trade it small though. Caveat emptor.