In Case You Missed This
I wrote this late Friday afternoon and some may have not seen it. It “bears” reading:
Thoughts on My ‘Low Drama’ Shorts — And One in Particular
I spend a lot of time discussing my index trading short rentals. I do this daily and trade SPY and QQQ in size. Short-term market views (which form the basis for these shorts) are a popular and even controversial topic. Like butts, everyone has an opinion on the market — so the audience for an index “view” is sizeable.
And I often short overbought and popular market leaders (with very extended RSIs like MU and INTC) where people have strong opinions on the long and short side.
These shorts are attention catching and tend to be tough shorts — particularly in the momentum-driven market of the last decade.
But, I don’t spend enough time discussing my individual (and often “low drama”) investment shorts — companies that sell simple and understandable products (widgets) whose secular prospects and business landscape are changing for the worst. These would include multi-year investment shorts like CHGG, DNUT, FIGS, BXMT, SNBR, RICK, FXLV, etc.
Case in point, my Winnebago (WGO) short.
Check out WGO’s stock chart and the steady drop in share price. As I wrote, it is a “low drama” and successful short based on the juxtaposition of several factors:
* Pressure on the K-shaped economy moving up vertically, towards the middle and upper-middle class that, traditionally, are among the target recreational vehicle buyers.
* The steady rise in the price of oil has pressured RV sales.
* Another headwind is the large rise in the cost of the average recreational vehicle — making purchases less attainable and reducing the total addressable market.
That said, when I was driving harness horses I owned a Minnie Winnie (Winnebago) that took me all around the country for stakes races. Back then, gas was a bit more than $1/gallon and the Winnebago cost me about $30,000. Today the price of gas can be 5 to 6x that price and a motorized RV costs between $50,000 up to over $600,000!
Position: Short SPY (VS), QQQ (VS), MU (S), INTC (S), CHGG (VS), DNUT (VS), FIGS (VS), BXMT (VS), SNBR (VS) RICK (VS), FXLV (VS), WGO (S)
BY Doug Kass · May 15, 2026, 3:08 PM EDT
Position: Short WGO (S)
