In what came across as an unusual step, Ambit Capital Ltd, bared its market mistakes in a boldly titled report: ‘Ambit—Our Biggest Mistakes in the past 12 months’. While the report was not meant to be distributed to anyone other than clients, it was highly written about in media a day after its release. First, it is not common for companies in the securities business to speak so clearly and openly about missed opportunities and market calls that went wrong. Second, some of the calls made went starkly against reality and that casts a shadow on their assumptions.
We spoke to Ambit Capital’s head of equity, Pramod Gubbi, about the report and some of the specific expectations that went wrong in the last 12 months. He pointed out that publishing ‘hits’ and ‘misses’ is regularly done at Ambit. Gubbi talks of the need to be upfront about such events as it underlines the intent and credibility of an equity manager rather than take away from it. Edited excerpts:
