5 Biggest Hedge Fund Casualties of Reddit WallStreetBets’ Short Squeezes

4. Maplelane Capital

Maplelane Capital is an investment firm run from New York. It is ranked fourth on our list of 10 biggest hedge fund casualties of Reddit WallStreetBets’ short squeezes. The hedge fund, run by Leon Shaulov, managed over $4 billion in assets. In late January, news publication Bloomberg reported that the fund had lost 33% in a single month after a failed attempt to short-sell GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) stock. However, the firm adjusted the short position before it took further losses as the share price of the video game retailer climbed because of Redditors. 

One of the top investments of Maplelane Capital is Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), the parent company of internet search engine Google. Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, London-based investment firm TCI Fund Management is a leading shareholder in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) with 2.9 million shares worth more than $6.1 billion. 

In its Q1 2021 investor letter, Artisan Partners, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Large-cap tech companies have been resilient through the pandemic—Alphabet among them. A top contributor, Alphabet’s Play Store and Google Cloud are in demand as businesses accelerate online activity which, along with strong YouTube user growth, is helping stabilize temporarily weaker search ad revenue trends. Through the lens of our disciplined bottom-up research process, we view Alphabet as one of the best businesses in the world, capable of expanding revenues at a rapid rate for years to come, with a bullet proof balance sheet and an average asking price. It’s a name we’ve owned since 2012 and for which we continue to have high hopes regarding future prospects.”