Firm: Kynikos Associates
City: New York
2008 Age: 50
2008 Assets Under Management: $4 Billion
James Chanos was born in Milwaukee in 1958. He graduated from Yale University in 1980.
Chanos is is the president and founder of New York based Kynikos Associates. Kynikos is Greek for cynic. Chanos is famous on Wall Street for being a cynical short seller – exhaustively researching companies – and taking large short positions for long periods in companies he deemed fundamentally overvalued.
He is notorious for predicting the demise of energy trading giant, Enron. He assumed a short position in 2001 and added to his position as negative news came out. Enron’s stock price crashed from $90 to less than $1 within a period of 16 months.
Chanos achieved returns of 30% for 2007.