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Jim Chanos
President, Kynikos Associates
Chanos thought something was fishy with Enron's accounting practices after he started investigating the energy trading giant in 2002. He had some practice in short selling: Back in 1982, as a 24-year-old analyst, he had predicted the collapse of a piano maker-turned-financial-company called Baldwin United. His forecast with Enron was dead-on: Within months after he shorted the stock, the Houston-based company's share price fell. Chanos watched as the price plummeted on Enron's way to bankruptcy, from $90 to less than $1 in 16 months.
