Einhorn Is Having a Hedge-Fund Midlife Crisis as Losses Mount The numbers tell the story. So far this year, his Greenlight Capital has handed its investors a 15% loss, bringing the total decline since the end of 2014 to a staggering 25% -- one of the worst showings among his peers. Investors have bolted, pulling almost $3 billion out of the firm in the last two years. Yet the baby-faced billionaire is unperturbed, no matter that he has been wrong about nearly every one of the top 40 positions in his $5.5 billion portfolio this year. He’s as cocksure as ever -- some might say cocky -- publicly and in conversations with colleagues. “We believe our investment theses remain intact,” he wrote in an April investor letter. “Despite recent results, our portfolio should perform well over time.”... “He’s chosen to stick with his approach in a massively shifting landscape, and I can’t help but admire his conviction,” said Brad Balter, who runs Balter Capital Management and is a long-time hedge fund investor. “But how do you survive when investors and the market are telling you they want you to change? It needs to turn into his kind of market fast.”... People who are sticking with the fund use basically the same language to defend their loyalty, something like: “David Einhorn is a smart guy -- he didn’t go dumb overnight.”...
investor should never short anything, especially bubbles (and they all are bubbles - that is how market works) as for the longs - investor should have huge patience all that does not apply to trading thou... smart reminds me the famous Bobby Fischer quote: "The genius - it is just a word. If I win - I am the genius, if I lose - I am not !"
He is going through a divorce. That could have impacted his investment performance, given that investing is highly emotional and divorce is super emotional.
Lots of examples of "looking brilliant one year, looking bad some other year". Lesson....However smart you think you are, you still should trade with stops.