Carl Ichan talked about his bet against the euro on CNBC. It’s a lesson on the patience it sometimes takes to see a trade go your way.
The average on his short position in EUR/USD, he said, was 1.27. That certainly sounds like a great trade with the euro at 1.1392 but he said it was tough because he sold the euro two-and-a-half years ago and 10 months ago the euro was near 1.40. Ichan said he “had to grit his teeth” when the position was deep against him even though he thought it was a no-brainer.
Ichan euro selling
Ichan also talked about his oil and said increasing worldwide demand will eventually make oil companies a great investment but when it happens — he said it might be 3-4 years — is anyone’s guess.
The flipside of his euro trade, he said, was that the dramatic rise in the US dollar will eventually weigh on corporate earnings and hurt the S&P 500. For the past few months he has been warning on stocks but, again, he said he wasn’t willing to put a timeline on when he thinks a decline may come.
Billionaire investor Carl Ichan
Ichan is best known the past few years for large bets on Netflix and Apple. He’s also been involved with eBay as he tried to break-up the company to separate PayPal but he eventually relented.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, he’s the 30th richest person in the world with a value of $23.9 billion
