World of Short Selling

Episode #5 - Ian Bezek

November 8, 2019

This episode contains the following (rough timestamps included);

0.30 How Ian got a job at Kerrisdale

5.00 Short-selling as a generalist

7.30 What would he do more of if he stared all over again

9.00 Sourcing short ideas through looking for longs

13.00 What is the advantage of smaller short-sellers

17.00 Timing and crowded trades

18.00 Best and worst trade – Argentina

24.30 Research focus and Twitter

25.55 Shorting Solar in 2019

28.20 Shorting boring consumer stocks

32.00 Ian’s current favourite short sector

35.00 Gamestop and other ‘perennial long ideas’

37.00 Timing in retail

40.00 Antero Resource short

46.30 Sourcing of ideas - Strange financing arrangements

49.30 Blue Apron short

53.00 Shorting fads – bitcoin example

57.00 Accounting red flags – Adjusting EBITDA

60.00 Ian’s favourite accounting gimmick

62.00 Ian’s favourite fraud story

64.00 Downside of being a perma-bear and short-only

66.00 How this reflects in the short-selling funds

68.00 US/Europe Governments reaction

70.00 Positing a big short – financial crisis

Below you can find tickers of companies we discussed and are still trading;

  • Antero Resource (AR)
  • Blue Apron (APRN)
  • Gamestop (GME)
  • Procter & Gamble (PG)
  • Sunrun (RUN)
  • Vivint Solar (VSLR)
  • Church & Dwight (CHD)
  • Tesla (TSLA)
  • Nova Lifestyle (NVFY)

Finally here is Ian’s Seeking Alpha profile and Twitter.