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Masters in Business: James Chanos
Barry Ritholtz interviews James Chanos in this week's "Masters in Business."
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Hedge-fund manager James Chanos of Kynikos Associates describes how he became a "fundamental short seller" in this week's "Masters in Business" podcast. Listen to the full interview here.
Early in his career as an equity analyst at Gilford Securities, he discovered that Baldwin Piano had morphed into a seller of insurance annuities and was also becoming a serial acquirer of other insurers. But the numbers didn't add up. Chanos kept asking questions, eventually leading to the discovery that earnings were being pulled forward, creating very misleading numbers. Chanos published his research, and the company's stock price doubled, before finally unraveling. At $9 billion, Baldwin was the biggest bankruptcy of its day.