Bonus Episode — The short seller's guide to credit, with Carson Block

<p>Carson Block is not an unfamiliar name, at least in the equity markets. He and his short-activism fund <strong>Muddy Waters Research</strong> have been at the center of many notable trades in recent years — so notable, in fact, that the SEC <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/federal-prosecutors-probing-short-sellers-wsj-2022-02-16/">began investigating him</a> last year.</p><p>He’s talked publicly about the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/03/wall-street-muddy-waters-activist-short-sellers-tesla-gamestop/672774/">covert techniques</a> he and his colleagues use to uncover fraud, and about the impacts of short selling on <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-15/how-muddy-waters-carson-block-is-dealing-with-us-short-selling-investigation?sref=CVntr6Fy">his health</a>. Amongst his successes have been some setbacks, like when <strong>Chinook</strong> was acquired by <strong>Novartis</strong> just after Muddy Waters <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-12/carson-block-s-latest-short-bet-is-burned-by-novartis-m-a-deal?sref=CVntr6Fy">doubled down on its short position</a>.</p><p>But shorting <em>credit</em> is a different ball game, and one that doesn’t get as much visibility as public stocks.</p><p>Muddy Waters has experience in that arena too, with short bets on names like <strong>Casino</strong> and <strong>Vivion</strong>, so we wanted to know what advice Block had for debt investors trying to spot which names to stay away from. Welcome to the short seller’s guide to credit!</p>