Jeff Gundlach Is Taking A Learning-By-Doing Approach To #FakeNews
Jeffrey Gundlach is displeased. A day after subjecting the audience at the 2017 Ira Sohn Conference to an existential odyssey that touched on Nietzsche, German expressionism, collective insanity and a clown called Binky, the DoubleLine bond boss is worried his investment thesis might have been misunderstood. The problem, according to the guy now speaking to the world as TruthGundlach, is #fakenews –the lying media misreported his simple call to short the S&P 500 and go long emerging markets. The solution to this confusion is, of course, Twitter:
(Cameron Crise is an occasional Bloomberg News commentator whose work appears on the terminal [sorry , plebs].)
Though Dealbreaker fully supports taking aggrieved potshots at the financial media establishment while crying #fakenews, it's important to be precise in one's criticism. To wit, Gundlach writes, “Bloomberg fake news on my Sohn presentation: 'Gundlach just painted an ugly picture for US stocks'.” But that headline belongs not to Bloomberg but to Business Insider:
The other offending quote – “Gundlach offered a bearish call on US stocks” – came from MarketWatch.
Perhaps we're nitpicking here. But there is a valid question of interpretation. Gundlach displayed a tableau of decadent torture and dubbed it “Portrait of U.S. Long-Only Equity Managers, 2017,” before recommending the audience short U.S. equities. Perhaps his intention wasn't ugliness or bearishness, per se, but it's certainly not a pretty picture.
You know what is a pretty picture, though?
Follow Jeffrey Gundlach on Twitter.
UPDATE: Someone must have tapped Gundlach on the shoulder.