Jim Chanos

[winston]

Legendary investor Chanos is short-selling the big oil companies...

Jim Chanos, the hedge-fund manager who made money betting against Enron Corp., said he is short- selling shares of large oil companies because investment in drilling and exploration is eating up their cash flows.

The founder of Kynikos Associates Ltd. said in a Bloomberg Television interview from his office in New York that his bearish calls on “some” energy companies, which he declined to identify, pre-date the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. That incident led to the largest oil spill in U.S. history and sent BP Plc shares down 49 percent through yesterday.

“If you look at their cash-flow statements relative to their income statements, you will see companies that haven’t replaced reserves in years, and haven’t seen any increase in revenues in years,” he said. “They’re borrowing their dividend. They’re in effect liquidating.”

In a short sale, investors sell borrowed stock in the hope of repurchasing it later at a lower price and pocketing the difference. Chanos said he hasn’t bet against London-based BP.

“We haven’t played BP in any way, shape or form -- short or long,” he said. “We have looked at BP, but, like a lot of others, we’re scratching our heads. I think there’s too many unknowables still.”

Chanos said he’s adding to short-sales of Ford Motor Co. as the second-biggest U.S. carmaker will struggle to compete against General Motors Co. United Auto Workers, the union that owns holdings in GM and Chrysler Group LLC, may favor those companies over Ford when negotiating upcoming labor contracts, he said.

“It’s going to be very interesting to see how it is that the union, which controls the employees -- and I contend these entities are still run for their employees and retirees more than the shareholders -- are going to look in an environment going forward, where the UAW is a major equity holder in some of the other entities,” the investor said. “It adds a new dynamic to the twist.”


Source: Bloomberg

[iam802]

The Power of Negative Thinking by Jim Chanos at the CFA Institute's Annual Conference

Download it here
http://rghost.net/download/1980379/75cd ... -Notes.pdf

[winston]

Jim Chanos often mentions his four favorite characteristics of great short-sells:
1) debt-fueled booms that go bust
2) consumer fads
3) bad accounting and
4) technology that's become obsolete.

[winston]

I dont want to be early when shorting something and it's better to short something on the way down ..

James Chanos On Auto Companies, China, And More By Jacob Wolinsky

Jim Chanos was on CNBC this morning. He had some interesting words to say especially in regards to China. Chanos who has stated that China is in a huge bubble, actually compared the company to Enron today.

He’s still describing the Chinese economy as a “treadmill to hell” because the country has to keep building like crazy just to keep the GDP numbers up.

Chanos stated he is still “absolutely short China”.

I tend to agree that China has a massive real estate bubble, based on a lot of that data I have seen over the past two years.

http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2010/ ... -and-more/

[winston]

Wonder whether he has cut his losses and cover his shorts ? Or he's shorting more by averaging up ?

[winston]

And when there's a correction in China, he would appear ...

The king is naked ! The king is naked !


Chanos: China’s Treadmill To Hell By Prieur du Plessis

Jim Chanos, the legendary short-selling hedge fund manager of Kynikos Associates, continues to cast doubt on the Chinese economy and its reliance on construction.


http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2010/ ... l-to-hell/

[winston]

The China Debate: Jim Rogers Vs Jim Chanos By Prieur du Plessis

Jim Chanos, founder and president of Kynikos Associates, is shorting China saying the nation’s economy is on the treadmill to hell.

However, legendary contrarian investor Jim Rogers disagrees and is wondering whether Chanos will survive his losses after having been short (and wrong) for 18 months.

http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2010/ ... im-chanos/

[winston]

On CNBC:-

He admitted that he has not spend any time in China at all

He mentioned that there's no resale market in China. I dont know where he gets his information but there's a thriving resale market. All you got to do is buy any newspaper or check out the real estate offices and you can see the properties that are for sale.

[winston]

I'm surprised that Jim Chanos is short the big oils eg. Royal Dutch and Exxon.

His reasoning is that they could have been borrowing, to pay their dividends and that's not sustainable.

[iam802]

Pretty scary..this Jim Chanos.