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The hedge-fund manager who may have made the best bet on coronavirus is turning optimistic.
Bill Ackman, the Pershing Square fund manager who turned $27 million into $2.6 billion after a series of bets using credit-default swaps in February, tweeted messages on his newfound optimism.
“I am beginning to get optimistic,” he tweeted, saying cases appear to be peaking in New York and that nearly the entire country is in lockdown.
His optimism was matched in global financial markets, with rallies for the Nikkei 225 NIK, +4.24%, the German DAX DAX, +4.49% and U.S. stock futures ES00, +3.77%.
Other factors that made Ackman optimistic include the prospect of hydroxychloroquine and antibiotics as treatments, the scaling up of antibody tests, massive government stimulus and low interest rates.
“One could imagine a world in the next few months where everyone is tested and all but the immune compromised go back to a socially distanced but more normal life. We wear bracelets or carry a phone certificate which indicate our status, and track infections where they emerge,” Ackman tweeted.
Ackman last month warned “hell is coming” in a CNBC interview that coincided with a big drop in the stock market.
