Paulson & Co, one of the worldâs biggest hedge funds, has made a profit of at least £270m betting on a fall in the share price of Royal Bank of Scotland over the past four months. The New York-based fund, run by billionaire John Paulson, covered its âshortâ position in RBS on Friday, according to a regulatory filing, dropping below the 0.25% disclosure limit. The scale of the profit is likely to renew the debate over short selling, which recently led the UKâs FSA to ban additional shorting of banks for months. The issue is likely to feature in UK parliament on Tuesday when hedge funds testify to the Treasury select committee about the ban. http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/01/27/51699/paulson-co-reaps-270m-shorting-rbs/ Nice trade...
I enjoyed this comment from one unfortunate investor quote - omments lonely insider Jan 27 13:58 had i known he was short, perhaps that would have given me incentive to do some of my own fundamental analysis/due diligence to justify my long position and perhaps, that would have been sufficient to unwind my position before it had dropped 75% in future, i promise to spend more time paying attention to short-sellers, and less time listening to corporate investor relations statements, broker recommendations and idiotic government announcements...