Short Stocks Like David Einhorn?

Business Insider recently linked to an interview with David Einhorn in which he lays out how he short stocks--or at least how he did it in this past financial crisis. Here's the relevant section:

Interviewer: Okay. I guess I want you to continue to sort of chronologically in August of ’07, as you said you see BNP Paribas freeze redemptions and that gives concern and you’re talking to the rating agencies among other things and you’ve identified the type of companies that you had concerns about. Can you just sort of take us through chronologically through the end of ’07 and into ’08 and how things changed, if at all, for you folks?

David Einhorn: Yeah absolutely. So this is sometime in August, we put on a bunch of positions and our team here basically divided up the names for sort of further work cause we wanted to figure out which were the ones that were the most exposed. Whereas the initial couple dozen was ticked off relatively quickly over the course of a weekend, which is not our normal amount of time to [do] due diligence, but I felt that given what was going on, there may not be a lot of time. And so we began putting on those couple dozen positions a little faster than we ordinarily would if we were just researching an individual security.

So from there we began concentrating our work and trying to figure out well which were the better, more exposed companies and which were the less exposed companies and over the course of the next couple of months, we focused the list down and we covered a number of the shorts and we increased a number of the shorts as we focused on the people that we thought were most vulnerable.

In sum, Einhorn quickly shorted a group of businesses in an industry with problems, worked feverishly to differentiate the worst of that bunch from the best, and then covered his shorts or added to them accordingly. You can check out the rest of the interview at Santangel's Review.

Ira Sohn Research Conference

My wifi access here in Hanoi has been bad all day. Just going to post an announcement for where you can hear a bunch of great investors speak live:

In this era of prolonged economic downturn, with insightful market information at a premium, the Ira W. Sohn Research Conference Foundation today announced the speakers for the 14th Annual Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference to be held on May 27, 2009, from 2:30 to 6:30 PM at New York City's Frederick P. Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

The Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference is the first of its kind to give premier investors a stage for explaining their best investment strategies and ideas.

Past conferences have been host to some of the most innovative investment advice to be released in a public forum, resulting in immediate market impact and long-term returns. Stock picks and market insights shared by previous conference speakers have proved extremely profitable for attendees. Several presentations at last year's event offered crucial analysis, including David Einhorn's comprehensive review of Lehman Brothers that foretold the company's fate and Michael Price's sobering thoughts on Wachovia.

"We always deliver fresh perspectives on the market," said Daniel Nir, Co-Chair of the Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference and Managing Partner of Gracie Capital. "Now more than ever is the time for a conference with a track record of producing the kind of results our conference provides." Conference Co-Chair Douglas Hirsch, Managing Partner of Seneca Capital, added, "Investors come to this event every year hoping to get several good ideas and one great idea - they have yet to be disappointed."