Wave of Speculation with Legendary Short Seller Jim Chanos

Guy Adami (0:00)

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Dan Nathan (1:04)

Welcome to the Risk Reversal Podcast. I'm Dan Nathan. That's Guy Adami. I am. We have a very special guest with us today. He's not only a friend of the pod, he was one of the first podcast guests we have going back to 2021 He's a great friend of ours and we're welcoming back Jim Chanos of Chainis and Co.

Thanks, Jim, for being here.

Jim Chanos (1:25)

Thanks for having me.

Guy Adami (1:25)

Well, just hold on a second.

Dan Nathan (1:27)

Well, did I miss something?

Jim Chanos (1:28)

No, you didn't.

Guy Adami (1:28)

Well, maybe the most important. What do they say when you bury the lead?

Dan Nathan (1:31)

Oh, legendary short seller.

Guy Adami (1:33)

No, I was not going to say that. I would say he's a legend in our industry.

Dan Nathan (1:36)

Correct.

Guy Adami (1:37)

I was not going to qualify.

Dan Nathan (1:38)

But any single time that you were in the press and you're often in the press, it always starts with legendary short seller. How do you like that?

Jim Chanos (1:45)

I always say that's a really, really low bar. It's like being called the toughest guy in France.

Dan Nathan (1:50)

Well, you've gone, oh man, Guy Adami might start using that a little bit. You really cracked him up here. No, you've gone through your process for years with us, and especially on CNBC and on Bloomberg. I mean, there is a skill to short selling. We're not going to go into that, but you had a long strategy for your clients and you would short stuff. By the way, Jim has been very generous, made a lot of great introductions to me over the years, and one of them, believe it or not, Guy, is a Fast Money fan, his name is Bob Melvin. He is the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Legendary playing career but also coaching, managing career. So yesterday, I'm on Fast Money from CNBC's One Market, and behind me is the, what do they call it, the Bay Bridge. So Bob texts me, he's like, are you in town? And I'm like, yeah, and he's obviously getting ready to manage the Giants that evening. I was in, I was out, I got to text with Bob.

Guy Adami (2:46)

He watches the show.

Dan Nathan (2:47)

He does watch the show. Just like we watch him playing baseball.

Jim Chanos (2:50)

And I met him because of the stock market.

Dan Nathan (2:52)

All right. Will you tell that story really briefly? Really briefly.

Jim Chanos (2:54)

I have to sanitize it a little bit. But Bob was, I think, in spring training and he was leaving dinner early to catch some guy that he wanted to see at four in the morning Pacific time on CNBC. And a friend of mine who I'd known for years was at the dinner and said, Who's that? Guess what? You wouldn't know him. And it turns out Bob wanted to see me. And next thing I know, I'm in bed trying to get some sleep before having to get up at 4 AM.

And my friend says, Will you please tell Bob Melvin, the manager of the Diamondbacks, that I know you? This is bizarre. And so Bob ended up then going to the Mets.

Dan Nathan (3:35)

Yeah.

Jim Chanos (3:36)

And moved to New York and we became friends and you know that.

And I'm a big fan of his. He's one of a handful of guys who have won manager of the year in both leagues.

Dan Nathan (3:46)

Just recently too, right? In San Diego.

Jim Chanos (3:48)

He won again, I think, in San Diego. And yeah, so I mean, and he's a big fan of you guys and he's a big stock market junkie.

Dan Nathan (3:58)

All right, Jim, what is on your mind right now? The S&P 500 is trading at $61.39 on February 19th. They traded what? $61.43 and changed. $434 or so.