The Last Thing We Needed: Breaking Down the Archegos Capital Blowup

The Archegos Capital blow-up at the end of Q1 marked the second huge non-fundamental market event, mirroring the GameStop/Melvin Capital/vintage investing short squeeze dynamics of January. While these can feel like localized events, making or spoiling GSX or VIAC investors' quarters, they at the very least offer important reminders of risk management and understanding your underlying investments. We break down how something like this might happen and what it means for bystanders and active investors. Topics Covered 2:30 minute mark - The Archegos and GameStop echoes 10:00 - The scaling of the short squeeze strategy 13:30 - Lone actor or market reflexivity at work? 16:00 - What fundamentally changed during COVID for these sorts of names 21:30 - The lack of an exit strategy 27:00 - Aftershocks of this action 33:00 - Adjusting to an elevated valuation environment and the leverage factor 39:00 - The company and prime brokers’ perspective on this situation 45:00 - Where do we go from here 54:00 - The danger of consensus 1:00:00 - Time to make weight for certain stocks Bonus: Article from Michigan Radio on sewer issues