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Actually, it was better than a kiss. It was an investment theme for 2014.
Bloomberg put together O'Neill - a known
It was fun, you should read about it.
Anyway, if you listened closely to their discussion (watch it here), Tom Keene asked Chanos to give him a "concrete example of a concrete company" he couldn't stand.
Chanos answered: "I would say anybody that's in the business of
That statement immediately brings to mind two of Chanos' short positions, both of which are companies that are dependent on China's appetite for iron ore.
First and foremost there's Fortescue Metals, an Australian mining company. At this time last year, it was going through a liquidity crisis.
In an article about the company published four days ago in the Sydney Morning Herald Chanos said:
"If you believe as we do strongly that the Chinese credit driven investment boom has to ultimately come to no good, then there is probably no better place to be short than iron ore..."
Then there's Vale. A Brazilian steel company. It's down almost 25% year to date and last year Chanos said that it too would suffer as slowing Chinese demand, coupled with the fact that China is building its own iron ore plants spelled disaster for its business.
Chanos' gripe with
So shorting Vale is like killing two birds with one stone for Chanos. It's logical in the context of his China thesis, and if you're an ETF kind of person, Vale (along with Petrobras, another Chanos short) is weighted quite heavily on the iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund (EWZ), which is down 14% YTD.
So you can buy Brazil, and then short Brazil.
Have fun.