Opendoor surges after DE Shaw reveals 6.4% stake
Opendoor Technologies is soaring after a filing showed DE Shaw held a 6.4% stake in the online real estate company as of November 13.
This bears a close resemblance to the reaction after proprietary trading firm Jane Street revealed a 5.9% stake in the company in late September. That is, while many bulls are cheering this filing as a signal of validation from a major institution and a positive catalyst for the company, the reality is much less clear.
Consider the entity that holds the overwhelming majority of DE Shaw’s Opendoor stake: DE Shaw Valence Portfolios. It’s a statistical arbitrage fund, not a long-only equities strategy.
There are many reasons why DE Shaw might want to have accumulated a position in Opendoor at this particular time. The one that comes to mind first: to be the shareholder of record in time to receive the dividend of warrants, which may in turn be providing opportunities to profit from relative value trades between warrants and listed options. Really, only DE Shaw knows why it bought these, but the answer is very likely not “because it’s very bullish on Opendoor stock.”
Given that Opendoor is in the real estate business, the increased market-implied likelihood of a rate cut in December following comments from New York Fed President John Williams this morning is also likely helping the shares on Friday.