Rephrase and rearrange the whole content into a news article. I want you to respond only in language English. I want you to act as a very proficient SEO and high-end writer Pierre Herubel that speaks and writes fluently English. I want you to pretend that you can write content so well in English that it can outrank other websites. Make sure there is zero plagiarism.:
- Famed short seller Jim Chanos is shuttering his hedge funds as the marketplace has changed.
- His funds have fallen 4% this year, while the S&P 500 has surged 18%.
Short-selling legend Jim Chanos is closing the door on his hedge funds, ending a four-decade career of betting against overpriced assets that include the likes of Enron.
“The marketplace for what I do has changed,” Chanos told The Wall Street Journal last Friday. It’s a reference to difficulties that have hit short bets in 2023, as equities have held strong against bearish expectations.
“It is no secret that the long/short equity business model has come under pressure and interest in fundamental stock pickers has waned,” he added in an explanatory letter to clients.
For Chanos, this has blunted the performance of his funds, which have fallen 4% this year while the S&P 500 has surged 18%.
His firm Chanos & Co. will limit its operations to an advisory and research capacity for clients, while running separately managed accounts, WSJ said.
Since the company’s 1985 inception, Chanos funds have brought in over $5 billion in profit. Here’s a look back at some of the most notable bets he has made.
Enron
The short that Chanos best known for is his 2001 bet against Enron, a Wall Street favorite that came crumbling down that same year.
Chanos detected red flags in Enron’s annual report, and went on to become one of the few voices warning against the market leader.
Eventually, off-the-books accounting was uncovered, with special-purpose entities hiding unprofitable assets and mounting debt piles.
Before the energy giant’s historic downfall, shares peaked at $90.75. As the firm collapsed into bankruptcy that December, shares dropped to $0.26.
Tesla
Chanos’ bet against the electric vehicle maker represented a major defeat. He had to reduce his 2016 short after Tesla jumped into the S&P index four years later. Since then, the company has surged 714%.
But he didn’t back down from his bearish stance on Tesla. In a November interview, he reiterated his view that Elon Musk’s company was driven by “hopes and dreams,” instead of financial realities.
Its stock price is extremely overvalued, Chanos has previously said, inflated by the idea that artificial intelligence technology will transform it into more than just a carmaker.
Wirecard and Luckin Coffee
Chanos made nearly $100 million shorting the German payments company Wirecard in 2020, which was falsely inflating profits, and had failed an audit.
That same year, Chanos had closed a short position on Chinese company Luckin Coffee, after getting a tip from another short seller. The firm was similarly found to be fraudulent, and Chanos closed his bet as its stock plunged 70%.
He has been a long-standing cynic on China, predicting a downturn that took years to manifest into a 2015 Chinese stock wipeout.
He continues to hold a bearish outlook on the country overall, characterizing its economic model as a “treadmill to hell.” In a 2021 interview, he renewed his projections of a Chinese property market bust, which have played out in 2023.
I have over 10 years of experience in the cryptocurrency industry and I have been on the list of the top authors on LinkedIn for the past 5 years. I have a wealth of knowledge to share with my readers, and my goal is to help them navigate the ever-changing world of cryptocurrencies.
