Bill Ackman Is Crushing Robin Hood Foundation’s Stock Picking Contest…By Shorting Carl Icahn

Bill Ackman is crushing the competition in the Robin Hood Foundation’s Pick-A-Ticker contest, where prominent figures in finance and donors to the organization have picked one long and one short to track from October 28, 2024 to April 30, 2025. 

And he’s doing it by shorting his arch nemesis, Carl Icahn. 

Ackman, whose picks have returned 112.5% in less than 2 months, is beating out names like Stan Drunkenmiller, David Einhorn Mike Novogratz, Carson Block and many other well known investors. 

And he’s doing it with some old familiar favorites – he’s long Fannie Mae, which he has long been a fan of, and disclosed on X on Friday that his short was the empire of his arch nemisis, Carl Icahn, Icahn Enterprises, which is down about 20% over the last month alone. 

Ackman and Icahn’s feud dates back more than a decade now, with the billionaires’ most prominent public tussle coming over shares of Herbalife, which Ackman was short and Icahn was long. Ackman was forced out of the trade and Icahn won the battle, but Herbalife shares have since collapsed about -84% over the last 5 years, lending credence to Ackman’s once massive short position in the company, which he alleged was a pyramid scheme. 

Participants in the Robin Hood contest were required to reveal their long pick but had the option of keeping their short pick confidential, which it appears Ackman had done until Friday. 

Fannie Mae shares have nearly doubled since the contest started, with hopes of the Trump administration considering the ‘recap and release’ scenario for the GSEs that investors have fantasized about for more than a decade now, since the entities were put into conservatorship. 

Icahn Enterprises shares have been clobbered about 20% since the beginning of the contest and are down almost 40% over the last 6 months. Recall, research firm Hindenburg Research questioned whether or not Carl Icahn’s namesake entity had taken on too much leverage in a critical report issued in early 2023.

Here are some of the best performing long and short ideas from the contest thus far:

Bloomberg has a running tally of who is winning and who is losing, as well as various charts and graphs to compare picks among contestants. 

The Robin Hood Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to combating poverty in New York City.