Hedge funds lose $30 billion on VW infinity squeeze
Volkswagen Infinity Squeeze. The October 2008 short squeeze on shares of Volkswagen AG has since been referred to as the “Mother of all Squeezes”. It was also perhaps the earliest use of the term “Infinity Squeeze”. It was during the middle of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and Volkswagen was increasingly being viewed as a potential bankruptcy candidate. In other words, Volkswagen was viewed as an exceptionally attractive short candidate. However, at very depth of the crisis, an orchestrated short squeeze on VW shares caused VW to briefly become the most valuable company in the world, worth more by market cap than Exxon Mobil.
The VW infinity squeeze seemed entirely counter intuitive at the time. And that is exac… Continue Reading (8 minute read)