John Pauslon's Friends Thought His Subprime Trade Was So Stupid They "Felt Sorry" For Him
Remember John Paulson's big trade a few years ago? This subprime business something or other? It ended up pretty well for him, netting a bunch of billions and the respect of his peers but at the time, most people who JP told about it it had a good laugh at his expense and thought to themselves, "who is this fuckin' guy," Paulson recounts.
...in audio recordings recently released by Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Mr. Paulson reveals just how much flack he got from professionals and peers, who in the early days of the turmoil derided his big bet as the misguided move of a “novice.”
“Most of them, when we did express our viewpoints, thought we were inexperienced novices in the mortgage market,” Mr. Paulson said in an interview with the commission in 2010. “We were very, very much in the minority. If I said a thousand-to-one, we were the one. Even friends of ours thought we were so wrong, they felt sorry for us.”
Having spoken with Paulson's friends and asked if such was the case, they would like to get a message out that they were just messing about it being a shitty idea- they loved it! Several even recalls describing it at the time as "the greatest trade ever" and in fact wanted to put their own money in the fund that returned 500+ percent. Something must have gotten lost in translation, is all. Maybe, though, since we're all buds here, they can get whatever they would've earned on a $1 bn investment? Okay, fine, make it 2.
