Bill Ackman discloses he adds 20% to his GSE holdings ($FNMA) via total return swaps.
He believes, just like just about everyone else save the WSJ that Judge Lamberth made a colossal mistake and his decision will either be dismissed outright or returned back to him (that is appeals court speak for “we think you might want to rethink this and save yourself some embarrassment”).
Of course readers know this would not be the first time Lamberth ruled on case citing an “unambiguous” statute only to be rebuffed by the appeals court. In fact, one need only go back a couple years to find the last instance. In the linked case, Lambreth was rebuffed not once but twice by the appellate court. In the first instance they returned the case to him for a “do over” and in the second instance, apparently tired of dealing with his mess they simply vacated his order. For a Judge, that is basically a back handed wave dismissal of a ruling, nothing short of a complete rejection of the their reasoning and application of the law. What was vacated was his reading of what he claimed was an “unambiguous statute” (the same reasoning he gave in the Perry v Treasury dismissal) that was called by the appeals court “erroneous”.
Like i said from day one….this thing is FAR from over….