Bagholder Trade - Post Mortem

Lessons In Event-Driven Trading

The Capri / Tapestry deal (aka the “Bagholder Trade”) has been blocked by the Judge. Consumers have been protected from higher prices in luxury bags, while everything else in their lives remains unaffordable. Meanwhile, the merger arbitrageurs became proper bagholders.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been involved in a broken deal (nor the last), but it’s probably the first time I’m content. The reason is that I’ve done everything right: the analysis, the process, buying the lows, selling enough at the highs to ensure I walk away with a profit no matter what.

This parody publication is called “Reminiscences of a Shrub Operator” because it’s my trading diary. In this post, I will “reminisce” about how we traded this situation so that the reader may (or may) not walk away with some useful lessons in speculation: