In the first place, it is VERY common for a bondholder to short common stock against a sizable bond purchase; which amounts to a loan to the entity. It’s a form of protection: If the entity (at worst) “goes BK” or (less worse) suffers a credit downgrade, it’s very probable that the common will “show red” to some extent, in other words, decline in market price. As that decline shows up in the common stock, a short bet flowers.
If in fact Soros shorted the stock circa 8/14, then he is near even. He certainly had to sit through some heat between then and now as the stock ramped up from about $30 to 34.6. But now he’s close to even with the stock back to 30.43. If he bought puts (to express a “market short” opinion then he lost a month’s premium or so but he would have bought puts much farther out, so that loss would not be that much. And, he probably sold puts against his long puts, as well, to bring in some nickels.
Soros is not especially in the business of losing money on bets.
“Soros is not especially in the business of losing money on bets.”
Perhaps all he wanted to do was to break even (i.e., not lose money) and he was smart enough to know he couldn’t be seen MAKING money or that would look damning.
There you go, letting facts ruin a perfectly good conspiracy theory. What are you, a Soros crony? How much does he pay you?
;~)
As I said in the other thread, there are to many variables in options to suspect a motive. Occum’s razor says this trade was made based on market conditions.