Another strong day for Andrew Left today
Prosecutor Ben Balding struggled on cross examination and often seemed confused by his own statements
Some notes from the courtroom today:
Balding tried to point out that Left's analysis on NVDA primarily originated from other analyst research notes. Left points out there is nothing wrong with that and other research notes aren't fully public
Balding, oddly IMO, tried to paint publication during trading hours as a manipulative tactic quoting, "Investors are emotional, like a flock of birds, during trading hours."
Andrew was managing a roughly $20 million Etrade account in August 2018, which declined by $11 million to $9 million by December 2018, showing his strategies didn't generate consistent returns
Left and his analyst Ryan Choi considered paying former SEC commissioner Harvey Pitt to review their work on $LOPE
Government's allegation that Left falsely claimed to have investors was contradicted by the fact Atom described itself as a Left investor and Left invested in his own funds
One big takeaway in this trial is how little many of the participants (especially the prosecutors and judge) understand about finance. For example, the prosecution objected to one chart because it included split-adjusted prices, which they argued are "current" prices and the judge blocked the exhibit with split-adjusted $NVDA prices
In my opinion, this trial is very much about the heart of activist short selling, which is trading around reports
Closing arguments are tomorrow followed by jury deliberations
