Today’s NYT Dealbook announces that Bill Fleckenstein (your friendly 19th Avenue hedge manager) will be closing down his short-selling hedge fund. The NYT reports that he will be returning to a more balanced style of investing but has no word on what will happen to the tchotchkes in his office: “His column didn’t say what would happen to some of the tchotchkes decorating his office in Seattle, including a six-foot-tall stuffed grizzly bear wearing a “Dow 10,000″ baseball cap and a sign that advises, “Protected Your Right to Arm Bears.”
Update (12/10): Danny Westneat interviews Bill Fleckenstein and better yet poses with the grizzly bear
Cool – definitely one of my favorite Hillebrities. That photo screams 1994. But, given his conservative nature, maybe that’s his current style. With the change, maybe he’ll go get a trim at Kitty Hawk next door. In the meantime, my kid would love that bear. The little neighbor girl calls it “the doggy.”
I’m shocked. For someone who has been bearish for so long and to be so wrong most of the time and then to close up shop now as we head below Dow 5000?! He should have been making money hand over fist this year into next year. Must be another bear who was long gold and commodities who got destroyed. Oh well.
I don’t know if I’d say he was wrong most of the time… I always felt like the market made no sense during the dot-com and housing bubbles, but that it took a while for anyone to be able to profit on that knowledge. When things are irrational, they can stay that way for years on end. The article http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/fleckenstein-to) doesn’t make it sound like he’s closing because he lost money; it might be that it’s just time to change investment strategies. He probably could have made more by short selling, if they hadn’t banned the practice during the crisis…
A guy like him should be making a fortune right now, easily. Well not the past week, but in general. Anyway, I have followed his calls all year actually and right before the market tanked in October he was already saying he was done shorting. Unfortunately for him that was when the big money was made on the short side. I say he lost money but only him and his clients know for sure. Good luck Bill.