Betting on Zero

Director: Ted Braun
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 2.0

Controversial hedge fund manager Bill Ackman (who runs Pershing Square) initiated a billion-dollar short position against the "nutritional supplement" company Herbalife, believing it to be a pyramid scheme - there to take a bullish stance on the stock is billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who doesn't really like Ackman at all ... oh, and there are many lower-income individuals who were financially affected by Herbalife and they're in the middle of this debacle, too. While I do think Ackman is correct - the evidence is damning - and Icahn is being petty, I don't find much artistic merit in this, which has many flagrant scenes of people crying over being taken by the scam ... I can't prove it, but it comes across as a propaganda piece for Ol' Bill (who may or may not have funded its production) just to make ticker $HLF eventually look like $ENE. Herbalife's closing price as of today, June 6, 2017, is $69.86, which is around fifty percent higher than when he began betting against it - keep covering Bill, it'll work out ... I hope (unlike his investments in $VRX and $JCP). [* March 2018 Update: Bill lost.]