Greenlight Capital 2017 Q4 Letter

I don’t comment on Warren Buffet’s letters because Warren hasn’t chosen me as a successor. But I do occasionally comment on David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital letter.

2017 hasn’t been a kind year to GC. Interestingly, Einhorn brings up fantasy baseball plays in his letter.

“However, once in a while the morning box score would reveal that despite the Blue Jays scoring 10 runs, your slugger had an uneventful and useless 1 for 5 game. It’s disappointing and feels worse than if your player had the same result in a game where the Blue Jays were shut out (unless you are also a Blue Jays fan). And, it doesn’t matter if your player was swinging well and hitting the ball hard every time or whether his evening was marred by ugly strikeouts, pop-ups and double plays. 1 for 5 is 1 for 5. Fantasy baseball only counts the statistical result. Our quarter and year felt just like that. We had a non-descript result in a period where it seems like most around us did much better.” -Letter -Valuewalk.com

GM and a few other longs did well for Einhorn.

Einhorn started a position in Twitter (did he read my 2016 piece arguing for AAPL or private buyout of TWTR ?)

New rule ? Never short Deere &Co.

Quote: “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades” [the full quote]

“At year-end, the largest disclosed long positions in the Partnerships were AerCap, Bayer, Brighthouse Financial, General Motors and gold. The Partnerships had an average exposure of 107% long and 66% short.” In a market like this one, shorts don’t play out too well.

Einhorn ends with the quote “No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.”— Baruch Spinoza