- Jim Chanos lashed out at Elon Musk’s supporters on Sunday in an expletive-filled post on X.
- “If you are a cult member and you believe that rocket explosions are a ‘success’… please sit down and STFU,” said the legendary short-seller.
- On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chanos would close his hedge funds.
Jim Chanos appeared to tear into Elon Musk’s supporters in a profanity-laced tirade on Sunday, just days after “Wall Street” daily announced that the legendary short seller and long-time Tesla bear will be closing his funds.
“For those of you who ask why I don’t address some of my harshest critics directly on this harmonious site, please understand that I give people with clear signs of mental illness a distance, and you should too,” Chanos wrote in a statement. write to X.
“At this point, if you are a cult member who believes rocket explosions are a “success,” a convicted securities fraudster, and/or a “short seller” who blew up his short fund in the fall of 2008, please sit down and STFU ” he added, possibly referring to the failed launch SpaceX’s Starship mega rocket Saturday.
“SFTU” is a commonly used acronym on social media that stands for “Shut The Fuck Up.”
It’s unclear what sparked Chanos’ latest tirade, although the bearish investor already made headlines last week when news broke that he planned to shut down by the end of the year the hedge funds he uses to place bets on specific stocks.
“The market for what I do has changed,” Chanos told the daily, likely referring to this the struggles of short sellers in 2023
Chanos funds now manage just $200 million, down from $6 billion in 2008, according to the Journal. They are down 4% year-to-date, while the benchmark S&P 500 stock index is up 18% over the same period, according to the exchange.
Chanos gained notoriety when he correctly predicted that the energy trading company Enron would go bankrupt in 2001.
In recent years, he has made high-profile bets against Musk’s Tesla, which he described in September as a “hope and dream stock” that is “ridiculously overvalued.” Shares of the electric vehicle maker surged 90% in 2023, helped by increased interest in artificial intelligence and price war whose goal is to increase sales volume.
