Greenlight Capital

Quality 0.50 · 3 views · Updated 2 months ago

American hedge fund

title: "Greenlight Capital" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["hedge-fund-firms-in-new-york-city", "lehman-brothers", "financial-services-companies-established-in-1996", "institutional-investors", "shareholder-rights-activists"] description: "American hedge fund" topic_path: "general/hedge-fund-firms-in-new-york-city" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenlight_Capital" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American hedge fund ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

FieldValue
nameGreenlight Capital
logoGreenlight capital logo.png
typePrivate company
industryInvestment management
foundation
num_employees25
founderDavid Einhorn
Jeffrey A. Keswin
location_cityNew York City
location_countryUnited States
key_peopleDavid Einhorn
aumUS$1.6 billion
(as of March 30, 2020)
subsid
productsHedge fund
homepage
::

| name = Greenlight Capital | logo = Greenlight capital logo.png | caption = | type = Private company | industry = Investment management | foundation = | num_employees = 25 | founder = David Einhorn Jeffrey A. Keswin | location_city = New York City | location_country = United States | key_people = David Einhorn | defunct = | aum = US$1.6 billion (as of March 30, 2020) | subsid = | products = Hedge fund | homepage = | name = Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. | type = Subsidiary | traded_as = (Class A) Russell 2000 Component | founded = | location = Dublin, Ireland and Cayman Islands | founder = Greenlight Capital | industry = Reinsurance | website =

Greenlight Capital is an American hedge fund founded in 1996 by David Einhorn. Greenlight invests primarily in publicly traded North American corporate debt offerings and equities. Greenlight is most notable for its short selling of Lehman stock prior to Lehman Brothers' collapse in 2008 and the $11 million fine they received in January 2012 for insider trading in the UK. Einhorn remains the fund's manager.

It also operates Greenlight Capital Re, a property casualty reinsurer. Unlike other funds, Greenlight does not use borrowed money, or leverage. The firm does not generate large trading volumes. It also manages a fund of funds and a private equity fund through its affiliates, Greenlight Masters and Greenlight Private Equity Partners.

, there were 25 employees, including nine analysts and one trader. It occupies a single high floor of an office building near Grand Central, in New York City.

History

Foundation and early years

Founded in 1996 by Einhorn, with $900,000 (half borrowed from Einhorn's parents). Greenlight generated greater than a twenty-five percent annualized net return for its investors until 2007, but lackluster results later brought this to under fifteen percent It prospered in its early days by identifying weak financial firms for short selling, making significant gains from Conseco, CompuCredit, Sirrom Capital, and Resource America.

A few months before the dot-com bust, Greenlight lost 4% of its total capital on a short on Chemdex stock as it soared in price. A few months after Greenlight closed its position, Chemdex stock plunged to $2.

2008 financial crisis

In the third quarter of 2008, Greenlight lost 15% of its value due to the 2008 financial crisis, primarily from long positions on industrial companies like Helix Energy Solutions, when the SEC temporarily banned short selling of financial stocks. With the majority of Greenlight's money in bonds and long positions on stocks, this stopped hedge funds minimizing 'long' losses or offsetting them with short gains. Greenlight ended 2008 down 23%, its first annual loss. In 2009, Greenlight recouped its losses from 2008.

Einhorn and Greenlight Capital were fined £7.2m by the FSA for insider trading in January 2012. According to the FSA, Einhorn and Greenlight had used inside information before selling shares of Punch Taverns in 2009, which helped avoid losses of £5.8m.

2015–2020 underperformance

Greenlight Capital was down 20 percent for 2015.

In February 2015, Greenlight Capital was ranked 53rd out of 58 hedge funds, with a D grade, in the Institutional Investor's Alpha Hedge Fund Report Card. This was the second year in a row Greenlight Capital received a D from IIA.

Greenlight Capital greatly underperformed the bull market in 2017. For January 2018, Greenlights funds were down 6% for the month where the S&P 500 was up 5.6%.

In March 2020, the fund posted loss of 21.5% as the global coronavirus pandemic drove the stock markets down.

Top equity holdings

As of 2019, the top equity holdings of the firm were in the shares of the following companies: Green Brick Partners, Brighthouse Financial, Ensco, General Motors, Exela Technologies, CONSOL Coal Resources, and Altus USA.

Greenlight Capital lowered its stake in Apple by 6.2 percent to 8.6 million shares during the fourth quarter of 2014, after Apple shares appreciated 15 percent in the year.

Philanthropy

In 2009, Greenlight Capital donated $7.2 million to three charities: Tomorrows Children's Fund, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) and the Project on Government Oversight (POGO). The Tomorrows Children's Fund received $2.6 million, CPI received $1.8 million, and POGO received $1.8 million.

Political contributions

In 2012, Greenlight Capital ranked 5th out of WNYC's top 10 hedge fund political donors. The hedge fund contributed $592,729.88 to New York State political campaigns in 2012.

Lawsuit with an ex-employee

In October 2023, a former employee at Greenlight Capital, James Fishback, sued the hedge fund in a row over his job title. In the suit, Fishback claimed he worked as “head of macro” at the New York hedge fund, but Greenlight Capital claims that position never existed. The controversy was covered in various news outlets.

Fishback claimed that in the two-and-a-half years he worked at Greenlight Capital, he was promoted twice; first from research analyst to trader and then to head of macro. Greenlight says these claims are false; it stated that the firm decided in 2023 to terminate Fishback due to low productivity but he resigned when he anticipated being let go.

On June 25, 2024, Greenlight Capital filed a countersuit, claiming Fishback violated his employment agreement, defamed Greenlight and engaged in unfair competition.

In September 2025, the dispute was resolved when Fishback admitted to sharing confidential information and acknowledged violating his employment terms by emailing Greenlight’s positions and strategies to a personal account and maintaining an undisclosed trading account. As part of the settlement, he agreed to return or delete all Greenlight information in his possession and pay the firm’s legal fees and costs.

References

References

  1. (30 March 2020). "Greenlight Capital Inc - Assets, Funds, Holdings". AUM13F.
  2. "Green Light Capital, Inc. Company Information". [[Hoover's]].
  3. Hugo Lindgren. (June 15, 2008). "The Confidence Man". [[New York (magazine).
  4. (25 Jan 2012). "Greenlight Capital to Pay $11 Million Fine in Insider Case". nytimes.
  5. "Company Overview of GreenLight Capital, Inc.". Businessweek.
  6. (14 October 2008). "Hedge Funds Concede Errors, Profess Optimism After Worst Losses". Bloomberg.
  7. Slazman, Avi. (September 17, 2008). "David Einhorn Bulks Up on Helix Energy". [[Barron's]].
  8. (September 19, 2008). "SEC Halts Short Selling of Financial Stocks to Protect Investors and Markets". [[SEC.gov]].
  9. Boyd, Roddy. (3 October 2008). "Market chaos batters hedge-fund star". CNN.
  10. (23 January 2009). "Greenlight Hedge Fund Lost 23% in 2008 on Helix, VW (Update1)". Bloomberg.
  11. Opalesque. (30 October 2009). "Greenlight recoups losses from 2008".
  12. (25 January 2012). "Einhorn, Greenlight fined for market abuse". Reuters.
  13. (31 December 2015). "Einhorn's Greelight Fund Ends Second-Worst Year Down 20%url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-01/einhorn-s-greenlight-hedge-fund-ends-second-worst-year-down-20-/". Bloomberg.
  14. (19 February 2015). "David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital just makes 'D' grade". New York Post.
  15. (February 2018). "David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital Lost 6% in January". Wall Street Journal.
  16. [https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/01/david-einhorns-hedge-fund-greenlight-capital-is-getting-crushed.html David Einhorn's hedge fund is getting crushed because of ill-timed bets against Amazon, Tesla during market surge]
  17. (3 April 2020). "Hedge fund Glenview off 30% as coronavirus weighs on portfolio". Reuters.
  18. "Greenlight Capital - Latest 13F Holdings".
  19. "Greenlight Capital scales back on Apple shares ahead of rally". Yahoo Finance.
  20. (28 May 2009). "Greenlight's Einhorn says shorting Moody's". Reuters.
  21. (18 April 2012). "Who's Who in Hedge Funds: NY's Top 10 Political Donors". wnyc.
  22. Goss, Louis. (2024-05-20). "Greenlight Capital’s clash with an ex-employee has captivated the hedge-fund world".
  23. Saacks, Bradley. (2024-05-17). "David Einhorn was once the young thorn in the side of executives. Now he's dealing with his own.".
  24. (20 May 2024). "Greenlight Capital’s clash with a former employee has captivated the hedge-fund world". marketwatch.com.
  25. (25 June 2024). "Einhorn’s Greenlight Slams ‘Head of Macro’ in Fresh Lawsuit". bloomberg.com.
  26. Dolmetsch, Chris. (September 26, 2025). "Fishback Admits Sharing Confidential Greenlight Information". Bloomberg.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

hedge-fund-firms-in-new-york-citylehman-brothersfinancial-services-companies-established-in-1996institutional-investorsshareholder-rights-activists