[Steve Cohen says NO to Porsche, YES to coal]

If you’ve been following the markets recently, you’ve probably been hearing all about “bailouts” and banks crumbling.  You’ve also probably heard Jim Cramer inside every New York cab bellowing “Beware of companies that pay ultra high dividends!  In this economy a defense could be your best offense!“  But you may not have heard that hedge fund managers would rather have coal in their stocking this year than a brand new Porsche.

The reason has nothing to do with a paradigm shift in luxury tastes, rather one of the most spectacular wrong hedge fund bets that occurred just weeks ago, a bet that has led to losses of close to $12 billion dollars.  Funds including Steve Cohen’s renowned SAC capital tried to “short” Volkswagen, unaware that Porsche had a massive option and planned to purchase a majority stake because of looser German disclosure requirements.

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