Robert Prather: A Crash Course on Short Selling

Hey guys! This week’s guest is Robert Prather, founder of Vision Research an independent research firm dedicated that focuses on the short side, and naturally this episode is a big crash course on short selling, so if you are interested in short selling or want to hear the point of view of a short seller this episode just for you! Rob shared how he analyzes the balance sheet, his idea generation, how to do due diligence and why he recommended shorting Allegro ($ALE) and Peloton ($PTON).

• [0:00] Why do you short sell?
• [4:30] Unique Aspects of Short Selling
• [7:40] Why is Short Selling Important?
• [9:20] Ideal Short Trade
• [10:00] Idea Generation
• [18:40] How to do Due Diligence?
• [21:00] Analyzing the Balance Sheet
• [31:00] What Industry does Robert shorts?
• [33:00] Allegro ($ALE): Short Thesis
• [42:00] Peloton ($PTON): Short Thesis
• [52:00] Covid Over Earners
• [56:00] Shorting Good Companies: Trex Company ($TREX)
• [1:03:00] Shorting SPACs
• [1:08:00] Structuring Short Books
• [1:15:00] More from Robert and Closing Questions

Finally, a big thanks to the following sponsors for making the podcast a reality.

If you like what you heard, check Rob out over at Visionro.com

Mitimco

This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company, also known as MITIMCo, the investment office of MIT. Each year, MITIMCo invests in a handful of new emerging managers who it believes can earn exceptional long-term returns in support of MIT's mission. To help the emerging manager community more broadly, they created emergingmanagers.org, a website for emerging manager stockpickers.

For those looking to start a stock-picking fund or just looking to learn about how others have done it, I highly recommend the site. You'll find essays and interviews by successful emerging managers, service providers used by MIT's own managers, essays MITIMCo has written for emerging managers and more!

Quartr

Quartr is revolutionizing the way investors interact with IR departments, listen to conference calls, and engage in investment research. The best way to think of Quartr is like Spotify for investor conference calls. Quartr is 100% free and includes markets from 12+ countries (with plans to expand in the future!). Investors can easily request new companies, and Quartr is quick to add them. You can learn more about Quartr by visiting their site, Quartr.se

If you're interested in changing the way you research companies, download the app today and give it a try on Apple and Android.

Tegus

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I spend nearly all my time reading Tegus calls on existing holdings and new ideas. And I know you will too. So if you’re interested, head on over to tegus.co/valuehive for a free trial to see for yourself.

TIKR

TIKR is THE BEST resource for all stock market data, I use TIKR every day in my process, and I know you will too. Make sure to check them out at