Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

On one hand, this is a report from a group that has disclosed it is also shorting the company stock and expects to profit if the value falls.

On the other hand, their reasoning for the accompany being risky and overpriced sounds pretty strong, if perhaps in way too many un-grouped bullet points.



This is their business model. I remember first hearing about them on their Nikola report. They nailed it. The stock lost 99.93%.

In my opinion, it's good for the market that something like Hinderburg exists. It keeps companies more honest. And if they're wrong, they'll lose money.


The people who whine about shorts are ridiculous IMO.

Yes, shorts have some negative incentives that we need to be careful about.

But they’re the only ones in the entire market who don’t have incentives to lie about how well a company is doing. A decently run market with a reasonable number of shorts would not build up to the bubbles we see regularly that collapse and need to be bailed out.

It was the shorts who noticed the housing bubble in the first place. If there’s were more of them they could have popped it much more gradually and less painfully than the crash we had which has been the precursor to a lot of the terrible things we’ve faced since then.


The real problem is the SEC has largely abdicated its role to meaningfully prosecute fraud. Short sellers shouldn't be our only real defense against fraud, but that's the reality we (Americans) live in.


How is someone short not incentivised to lie that a company is doing poorly? I can’t see how the incentives change at all. Maybe I’m misunderstanding you.


Defamation lawsuits and criminal prosecutions for market manipulation do help keep them from outright lying most of the time.


How is that any different to longs?


Agreed that is why auditors, disclosure regulations and companies like hindenburg exist and how public markets should function, they prevent executives from defrauding the public. Keep the accounting clean, lest you invite scrutiny from shorts


The model of funding investigative reporting via shorting is an interesting “hack” when compared to the often conflicted ad based funding we have had historically.


I imagine a hokey used-car TV advertisement: "We make conflicts of interest work... FOR YOU!"


We prefer to think of them as synergies of interest!


Yep hard to trust with conflict of interest. They seem to be at least partially wrong on Supermicro and Adani.


True they have a conflict of interest, but show me equity research that doesn’t have a conflict of interest. The only way to get that is to do it yourself.

Even the most glowing research piece put out by a big sell-side firm I can guarantee you the sales traders will swear about internally because they feel it should have been more bullish. Even when big wall street firms don’t have a position and aren’t trying to butter up the c-suite in the hope of getting future IB fees, they are structurally long the market because of how commissions work so they want shares in general to go up.

In that context I think short research is healthy. With Hindenburg yes you know he has a (short) position so has an axe to grind, but at least you know exactly what his position is and can interpret the research through that lens. All other research should be read with the same skepticism but you should additionally make sure to identify the author’s bias because they surely have one.

I personally don’t trust any published research and would urge anyone who invests to do their own research. Also absolutely don’t trust any recommendations or “research” you read put out by someone online and least of all random investing “tips” put out by influencers/random people you meet etc. There is a huge amount of astroturfing via forums and the like and if you can’t trust the big wall street firms and specialised research boutiques you certainly can’t trust 2thaM00n1234 on reddit, or that guy you met at the golf club Christmas party, or Jane’s brother’s boyfriend’s cousin who made a bunch of money through crypto or whatever all of which could literally be anyone at all even if you think you know them.

Do the legwork yourself, make money slow. That way there’s no-one to pull the rug out from under you.


> Adani

To be fair, for a company like Adani, which is very connected to India's politicians, even if they do something illegal, they'll get away with it. Corruption is very high in India and the elites and politicians just do what they want.


What I recall reading was various deep audits following the Hindenburg report disagreeing with their findings. Is it possible those auditors are wrong? Maybe. But I would imagine they spent extra effort given the public scrutiny over all this.


except that the "elites" of india, want to, but cant, breath the air.And, have no possible way to restructure the industry that they are profiting from, which they in no way ,directly manage, operate, or regulate, personaly. So they are exporting there very sucsessfull business model, worldwide......following the money ....,herds......mooooo.....mooooo....mooooney! to fresher ,greener(ha!), pasture


This is an interesting niche to see

It's like when Google sued Oracle.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: