James Simons of Renaissance Technologies LLC is one of the greatest hedge fund managers in history. His fund’s annualized returns are an eye-popping 66% a year since 1988. Lately, he’s been loading up on shares in meme stock AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc:
Renaissance Technologies, which held approximately 516,000 AMC shares by March this year, has more than tripled its stake in the firm. Cumulatively, RenTech now owns more than 1.8 million shares.
Despite the entrance of some hedge funds, about 80% of AMC’s stock is held by retail investors.
Simons seems acutely aware that individual traders are flooding the stock market and AMC shares in particular. Indeed, the number of retail brokerage accounts has exploded this year. From The Economist:
In 2019 around 59m Americans had accounts with one of seven of the largest brokers. This number has surged since to 95m, as 17m new accounts were opened in 2020 and 20m were set up this year.
Short squeeze or no, that’s a powerful source of demand that Simons and Renaissance can benefit from.
I don’t know whether the stock will go up, down, or in circles. But I do know that I wouldn’t want to bet against Jim Simons.
More on AMC and hedge funds:
HEDGE FUNDS HIT HARD BY MEME STOCK LOSSES, BADLY BEHIND S&P 500
NEW DATA SHOWS BIG DROP IN AMC FAILS TO DELIVER
HOW SHORT SELLERS COULD EVADE THE NEW NSCC RULES
Photo: “Jim Simons” by Graham is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
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