Why Is Crispin Odey Voting Against British Economy?

[spathiphyllum]

He made 220 million pounds betting that markets would collapse after the initial brexit referendum..

Now he's betting UK firms will suffer under a No Deal Brexit

If no deal would be good for Britain, why is Boris' financial backers literally betting otherwise?

[naomi24]

Do you have a link?

[Old_Geezer]

What markets collapsed ? Must have missed the headlines of a world in desperate turmoil. And some bookies paid him ? Weird. We should all know of these bookies that pay out a place on a two horse race.

[New Judge]

He's a leading hedge fund manager. Hedge funds specialise in short-selling (look it up if you don't know what that entails). Part of the hedge fund manager's dark art is talking down the stocks and currencies that they have "invested" in. That's the way they make their money.

[spathiphyllum]

NJ, surely though that means that UK firms indeed would suffer from a no deal brexit?

[Old_Geezer]

Any change involves disruption for a while. Long term there ought not be suffering as changes are made for the better.

[spathiphyllum]

https://inews.co.uk/news/tory-donor-bets-300-million-on-losses-for-uk-firms-after-no-deal-brexit-497159

[spathiphyllum]

[i]Ian Murray, the Labour MP who champions the People's Vote campaign, said: "It's a disgrace to democracy that Johnson is happy to take money from a man who is betting against the country and who stands to make a mint if he forces no deal on us.

"It might not be illegal, but it stinks."[i]

[New Judge]

//NJ, surely though that means that UK firms indeed would suffer from a no deal brexit?//

No it doesn't. It means that their share prices may drop following a no deal Brexit. Not the same thing at all. The day after the referendum in June 2016 there was a large drop in share prices. None of the companies involved necessarily suffered because of that result but the Stock Market reacted nonetheless. This was short-sellers' heaven. The prices recovered (and are now, in the main, considerably higher than three years ago), nobody died and the short sellers moved on to their next opportunity.

[New Judge]

As an aside, I'm actually not in favour of short selling. I think it skews the market and opens companies up to problems as their shares are talked down. There's a simple way to prevent it - outlaw sales of shares that you do not own. But no political party seems that bothered by it and so long as it's legal all power to the short-sellers' elbow. Mr Murray, of course, like many Labour politicians, takes a different view.

[Old_Geezer]

Anyone who doesn't anticipate a short term drop as change happens ought not be investing.