Article: Who (Almost) Killed Home Capital Group?

Article - Media, Publications

Who (Almost) Killed Home Capital Group?

Featured Posts, Investments, 02 April 2021

I am still coming to terms with the collapse in shares of Home Capital. It wasn’t supposed to play out this way. The Canadian alternative mortgage lender saw its shares fall from an all-time high of $54.86 in August of 2014 to a low of $5.85 in May of 2017. At the time, I was working as an analyst at one of Canada’s largest asset managers. I spent 2014 and 2015 following only the Canadian banking sector. I saw the events at Home Capital up close.

The company was in the crosshairs of short sellers for years prior to its 2017 crisis. As an alternative lender in Canada’s frothy housing market, many shorts saw parallels between Home Capital and some of the worst-performing American subprime lenders. Steve Eisman, made famous in Michael Lewis’ The Big Short for his success betting against the US subprime bubble, was one of the first to come out publicly as a bear on Home Capital in 2013. And from there the criticisms continued for years. Continue reading “Article: Who (Almost) Killed Home Capital Group?”

Subject: David Rocker

People

David A. Rocker  (born 1943) founded the hedge fund Rocker Partners, LP. Rocker holds a magna cum laude bachelors from Harvard College and a master of business administration from Harvard Business School. Rocker and his wife, Marian, reside in Florida and New Jersey. They have two sons.

In 1969, Rocker joined Mitchell Hutchins, where he was a research analyst and investment banker. In 1972, he hired on at Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Co., a pioneering hedge fund, and was a general partner there from 1973 to 1981. Rocker joined Century Capital, a registered investment adviser, as a partner in 1981. While there, he was a portfolio manager for institutional clients. Continue reading “Subject: David Rocker”

Web: Our Financial Oligarchy; Emperors of a Brave New World

Web

Our Financial Oligarchy; Emperors of a Brave New World

They own the regulators; they own the brokerage houses; they own the clearing houses; they own all of your investments; and it’s even been shown that they can exert complete control over the government.

To understand how these banks exert complete control over our financial system, one must first understand the securities clearance system.

In the United States of America, there is only one central clearinghouse: The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, and for almost 50 years they have maintained a virtual monopoly over this essential service.

It is a private corporation that is owned by these mega-banks and brokers.

Read full free book online with many illustrations

PDF (470 Pages): Our Financial Oligarchy Back-Up

Article: Marc Cohodes On The EIC Ponzi Scheme

Article - Media, Publications

Marc Cohodes On The EIC Ponzi Scheme

ValueWalk, 15 October 2017

Farmer Marc Cohodes is one of the world’s most feared short sellers. Former General Partner of Rocker Partners/ Copper River from 1985 to 2009, Cohodes has made a name for himself by focusing on the details. He calls out companies where the numbers don’t add up, and he’s usually right. In the financial crisis, he hit the jackpot when he correctly called the demise of Lehman Brothers. After retiring in 2009, Cohodes has since returned to the markets, betting against Canadian mortgage lender Home Capital and Valeant Pharmaceuticals among others.
Continue reading “Article: Marc Cohodes On The EIC Ponzi Scheme”

Article: High-profile short-seller takes aim at five Canadian companies

Article - Media, Publications

High-profile short-seller takes aim at five Canadian companies
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LUKE KAWA, 05 October 2016

Twenty five minutes into a profanity-ridden presentation at Jim Grant’s Fall 2016 Investing Conference in New York City, Marc Cohodes paused his speech to don a red jacket emblazoned with a maple leaf on the right breast.

So attired, the short seller proceeded to launch into his bearish theses for the collection of Canadian companies he’s betting against.

Mr. Cohodes, the former managing general partner at Copper River Management and current chicken farmer at Alder Lane Farm in California, revisited the cases for why he’s short Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc., The Intertain Group Ltd., Concordia International Corp., and Home Capital Group Inc.

At the conference on Tuesday, he unveiled a short position in Equitable Group Inc., a Toronto-based provider of mortgage financing. The company disputes Mr. Cohodes’s claims about its vulnerabilities.
Continue reading “Article: High-profile short-seller takes aim at five Canadian companies”

Article: Anger at Goldman Still Simmers

Article - Media

Anger at Goldman Still Simmers

Gretchen Morgenson

New York Times cited by RGM Communications via Wayback, 26 March 2012

Just before the financial crisis began in September 2008, a prominent hedge fund appeared well positioned to take advantage of any turmoil in the markets. That fund, Copper River Partners, had made sizable bets months earlier against companies whose stocks it expected to suffer.

Within weeks, however, Copper River, once a successful $1.5 billion hedge fund, was out of business, having unexpectedly absorbed losses on the very bets it thought would be profitable.

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Article: Overstock’s Byrne claims $5m scalp over short selling

Article - Media, Publications

Overstock’s Byrne claims $5m scalp over short selling

Cade Metz, 09 December 2009

Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne has said that hedge fund Copper River Partners paid his company $5m this afternoon to settle claims it colluded to denigrate Overstock and then profit from short positions in the retailer’s shares.

Byrne – who has waged a very public battle over Wall Street short selling – tells The Reg that the $5m payment from Copper River (formerly Rocker Partners) arrived at about 2:30pm Pacific time on Tuesday. According to Byrne, it settles a 2005 lawsuit Overstock filed against the hedge fund. Continue reading “Article: Overstock’s Byrne claims $5m scalp over short selling”

Web: SEC Allows Deci-Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme to Run For Years

Web

SEC Allows Deci-Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme to Run For Years

Bob O’Brien

Sanity Check via Wayback, 16  December 2008

So, you have these cops, see? They patrol the neighborhood where all the cocaine gets sold, and yet for all their hard work, the coke problem spirals out of control. Many, when they choose to leave the force, get massive pay increases by going to work for some of the private security firms long linked to the coke dealers. They will occasionally bust small time dealers, or new entrants into the market, however the very visible kingpins in the neighborhood, who drive Bentleys and have their own planes, never get looked at. In fact, should anyone suggest that a Colombian with a 4th grade education not be a legitimate multi-million dollar business owner, they will get investigated. The town’s awash with coke and coke profits, but according to the cops, nobody knows where it all comes from, who is trafficking in it, or anyone that’s dirty. Everyone is mystified by the coke deluge.

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THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?