Leverage. Sweet, sweet leverage. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...rchegos-capital-lost-20-billion-in-two-days\\ "The sudden implosion of Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management in late March is one of the most spectacular failures in modern financial history: No individual has lost so much money so quickly. At its peak, Hwang’s wealth briefly eclipsed $30 billion. It’s also a peculiar one." "That’s why on Friday, March 26, when investors around the world learned that a company called Archegos had defaulted on loans used to build a staggering $100 billion portfolio, the first question was, “Who on earth is Bill Hwang?” Because he was using borrowed money and levering up his bets fivefold, Hwang’s collapse left a trail of destruction. Banks dumped his holdings, savaging stock prices. Credit Suisse Group AG, one of Hwang’s lenders, lost $4.7 billion; several top executives, including the head of investment banking, have been forced out. Nomura Holdings Inc. faces a loss of about $2 billion."
Had Mr. Hwang done any more sophisticated trades like what Ms. Cathy Wood did, then he would have earned more respect. But gigantic positions in a handful of stocks like ViacomCBS, Baidu, Tencents and others? They are even much worse than holding Apple, Amazon, Google etc. At least there are tons of liquidity with those.
Greed clearly has no limits. Or it was the gambling rush. When you are worth $20 Billion, then making just a few billion extra a year doesn't give you the same thrill anymore. You got to keep on doubling that account to get the same high.
His own church charity has about $400M. Other church organizations who received his donations lament his losses and loss of future donations. Maybe his church organization can give back like $200M for him to trade back to billions again. I think he still controls that money. He should have some of his own money with the family and kids. Not sure how much though....