The King of Short Selling

" Analysts were expected to know the capital structure of every company they covered, the incentives of management, the ownership of the top holders, the liquidity of options, the covenants on debt, and which reporters might understand the story if public pressure became necessary. Nobody praised effort. Effort was assumed. Mistakes were memorialized in a shared document called the Bone Book. Ethan loved it. He still lived in Queens, but now he left before dawn and returned after midnight with legal pads full of notes. He learned to read credit agreements like hostage letters. He learned that adjusted EBITDA was often a confession printed in non-GAAP clothing.