Whitney Tilson's Daily Newsletters

November. 2020

Kyle Bass's Texas Feud Spotlights Short-Selling Tactics; COVID-19 analysis of the Dakotas and New Mexico; Pandemic may be declining in Europe; Our backwards approach to lockdowns

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
1) I’ve been writing frequently about activist short-sellers, in part because I think they’re healthy for our markets, and because I want to warn my readers about stocks that could blow up in their faces. I also have a great deal of respect for these folks. What they do is extremely hard and dangerous, not […]

Electric vehicle stocks are up big; Bank Stocks Already Had a Wild 2020. Then November Got Even Crazier; Lunch with Bill Ackman; COVID Alert app

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
1) I’m incredibly bullish on how rapidly I think we (and the rest of the world) will adopt electric vehicles (“EVs”) – for reasons I outline in this video, which I first released in April. Anyone who listened to me back then and bought pretty much any stock in the sector has made a fortune, […]

GSX Techedu tumbles; 'SOLO is a COMPETE JOKE'; 1 America, 1 Pandemic, 2 Realities

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Monday, November 23, 2020
1) In Friday’s e-mail, I wrote: “As punishment for the outrageously high number of Chinese firms that have listed on U.S. exchanges and turned out to be total frauds, I would simply ban all of them.” It would be hard to find a better current example than Chinese online-education provider GSX Techedu (GSX), which famed […]

How City high-flyer dodged COVID to end up top of the stocks; In the COVID Economy, Laid-Off Employees Become New Entrepreneurs; SEC Pursues Plan Requiring Chinese Firms to Use Auditors Overseen by U.S.; Store Accused of Fat Shaming; Your Worst One Percent

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Friday, November 20, 2020
1) Following up on Wednesday’s e-mail, in which I highlighted the top investors who trade the least – a strategy that I wholeheartedly endorse – here’s an article about a British fund manager who takes it to an extreme – and has had extraordinary success: How City high-flyer dodged COVID to end up top of […]

A dodgy deal helped make him a billionaire. It worked, until now; Excerpt from my book – Calamity No. 1: Loss of Reputation and/or Wealth

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Thursday, November 19, 2020
1) What a cautionary tale this is from the Washington Post: A dodgy deal helped make him a billionaire. It worked, until now. I wonder how many ambitious young people looking to set up their own investment firm would turn down a $1 billion seed investment, even with highly dubious terms? Excerpt: Over the past […]

13-F filings of 57 investment firms; Fewest stocks traded; Is the Ford F-150 Partially Responsible for the Retirement Crisis?; Graduates of Elite Universities Get Paid More. Do They Perform Better?

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
1) Following up on yesterday’s e-mail about Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-B) 13-F regulatory filing, which showed the stocks it bought and sold during the third quarter… I also like reviewing the activities of other investors I respect, so I read with interest the summary of the activities of 57 investment firms, mostly hedge funds (see the […]

Doug Kass and I are still bullish on bank stocks; Berkshire Hathaway's stock moves in the third quarter; Southwest Airlines Seizes the Moment as Rivals Struggle; My daughters got rapid COVID-19 tests

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
1) In my October 13 and November 3 e-mails, I shared a bull case for bank stocks (which I agreed with) from my friend Doug Kass of Seabreeze Partners. He concluded: Despite the near-universal hatred towards the group, the relative earnings momentum of banks (against the non-financial components of the S&P 500 Index) will begin […]

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Is Becoming Its Own Elephant Investment; Lockdowns/social distancing/societal behavior AND herd immunity are BOTH important; Analysis of Oregon, New Mexico, New York and Florida

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Monday, November 16, 2020
1) Following up on my e-mail last week in which my longtime friend and former partner Glenn Tongue analyzed Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-B) third-quarter earnings, I was quoted in this Wall Street Journal article about the huge (and welcome) increase in the company’s share repurchases: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Is Becoming Its Own Elephant Investment. Excerpt: Warren […]

Gun sales likely to remain high; China's President Xi Jinping Personally Scuttled Jack Ma's Ant IPO; The Digital Nomads Did Not Prepare for This; The eight states that face the highest risk of getting walloped by the pandemic in the coming months

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Friday, November 13, 2020
1) Though we thankfully haven’t seen any meaningful election-related unrest, as many feared we might, one sector likely to benefit from the Joe Biden win that Enrique, Berna, and I predicted in our September 23 webinar is gun makers like Smith & Wesson Brands (SWBI). At first glance, it may appear counterintuitive – gun sales […]

Two big conclusions about the coronavirus pandemic

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Thursday, November 12, 2020
I continue to closely follow the pandemic, sending lengthy e-mails to my coronavirus e-mail list every week or two (if you’d like to receive them, simply send a blank e-mail to: [email protected]). Here’s the e-mail I sent to my readers last night… Below I will show data to support two big conclusions: 1) The current […]

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is hedging the pandemic again; Comparing the COVID-19 crash to prior ones; 'Our Recent Performance Sucks.' Here's Your $10 Billion Back; Value meme; The Shrink Next Door

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
1) Here’s some very interesting breaking news: Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is hedging the pandemic again after raking in $2.6 billion from a similar bet in spring. Excerpt: Billionaire investor Bill Ackman turned $27 million into $2.6 billion by insuring his hedge fund against a wave of corporate defaults earlier this year. The Pershing Square […]

On Election Day, Facebook and Twitter Did Better by Making Their Products Worse; Short report on Penumbra; Nikola's earnings, website change, and subpoenas; Katharine the babysitter

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
1) Though I think their stocks are great buys, I’ve strongly criticized Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR), and Alphabet (GOOGL) subsidiary YouTube for failing to rein in abuses of their all-powerful platforms by liars, extremists, racists, foreign adversaries, and others. Thus, it’s only fair that I give them a shout-out for apparently doing a much better […]

'The highest expected return bet I've seen in a while' pays off; Margin of safety; I raised $17,750 for KIPP; Berkshire Hathaway's third-quarter earnings; For Business, Biden Bodes a Less Hospitable but More Predictable Presidency; Biden's Day 1 Agenda; Doug Kass' amazing prediction

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Monday, November 9, 2020
1) In my recent e-mail on October 29 I wrote about… The highest expected return bet I’ve seen in a while – an opportunity to make 54% in six days… Just buy Joe Biden to win the election at $0.65 cents “per share” (meaning real-money bettors give Biden a 65% chance of victory) on betting […]

Is the pandemic going to get worse?; W.H.O. Let China Take Charge; COVID versus flu IFR by age; Reopen schools; Great Barrington Declaration; COVID's Mysterious Long-Term Effects; European cases and hospitalizations; Slovakia

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Friday, November 6, 2020
The number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. hit an all-time high of 118,319 yesterday (with total cases approaching 10 million), and the number of daily deaths has crept back above 1,000 the past three days, as you can see in these two charts (the lines show the seven-day moving average): Daily Cases Daily […]

Remember That We Win in the End

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Thursday, November 5, 2020
I couldn’t be more delighted that I was able to recruit my long-time friend from the hedge-fund business, Enrique Abeyta, to join me shortly after I launched Empire Financial Research last year. In addition to contributing to our first newsletters, Empire Investment Report and Empire Stock Investor, he’s now launched three of his own: Empire […]

Ant IPO Postponed by Shanghai Stock Exchange; Doug Kass remains bullish on bank stocks; Update on Lumber Liquidators; What to Expect on Election Night; Last chance for my charity wager; Vote!

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
1) Wow, I can’t wait to learn more about this breaking news: Ant IPO Postponed by Shanghai Stock Exchange. Excerpt: The Shanghai Stock Exchange postponed Ant Group’s blockbuster initial public offering, a day after a quartet of regulatory agencies summoned Jack Ma, the company’s controlling shareholder, and top executives to a closed-door meeting. The meeting […]

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act; The American Economy Was Hit by a Bus; Struggling Rental Market Could Usher in Next American Housing Crisis; U.S. States Face Biggest Cash Crisis Since the Great Depression; State trooper dates Cuomo's daughter, gets transferred close to Canada

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Monday, November 2, 2020
1) Following up on Friday’s e-mail about the incredible performance of the tech giants: one thing that could dampen their growth is the increasing scrutiny they’re under for their content moderation (or lack thereof). Therefore, it’s important for investors to understand Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which governs this area. There are many […]
Whitney Tilson
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About Whitney Tilson

Prior to creating Empire Financial Research, Whitney Tilson founded and ran Kase Capital Management, which managed three value-oriented hedge funds and two mutual funds. Starting out of his bedroom with only $1 million, Tilson grew assets under management to nearly $200 million.

Tilson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in government in 1989. After college, he helped Wendy Kopp launch Teach for America and then spent two years as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1994, where he graduated in the top 5% of his class and was named a Baker Scholar.

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