Andrew Left

Andrew Edward Left (born July 9, 1970) is an activist, short seller, author and editor of the online investment newsletter Citron Research, formerly StockLemon.com.

Under the name Citron Research, Left publishes reports on firms that he claims are overvalued or are engaged in fraud.

Left is known for advising investors on short selling and has often appeared on various media outlets such as CNBC and Bloomberg to talk about his opinions on stocks.

He attended Northeastern University in 1993.

Left's first job was with Universal Commodity Corp, a high-pressure commodities brokerage firm that hired salespeople to make cold calls and push "questionable investments."

Left quit in March 1994, after 9 months with the company.

When the National Futures Association sanctioned the firm in December 1998, Left, along with every other former employee, was sanctioned for three years along with being required to take an ethics-training course as part of the probe into the firm for making false statements to sell commodity futures contracts.

The National Futures Association stated Left “made false and misleading statements to cheat, defraud or deceive a customer in violation of NFA compliance rules.”

Left became active in short selling by the age of 24.

He has cited his experience with Universal Commodity Corp as the reason he started short selling stocks promoted by boiler-room scams.

When the boiler rooms eventually went out of business, Left started shorting stocks from bulletin-board scams, in which people would send out email blasts saying, "Buy this stock now or you'll miss out."

In April 1999, Left became president and CEO of Detour Media.

He was named director of the company in November 1999.

Left switched to shorting the stocks full-time, using his own research to publish free reports on firms he feels are overvalued or engaged in fraud.

In 2001, he founded StockLemon.com, now known as Citron Research.

According to Left, he has made profits every year since he started short selling.

Left started StockLemon.com in 2001 as a self-published blog containing reports on controversial companies.

According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of 111 Citron short-sale reports spanning from 2001 to 2014, there was an average share-price decline of 42 percent in the year after Left's report was released.

Of those shares, 90 were lower one year later while 21 gained, according to data from S&P Capital IQ.

GTX Global Corp. sued Left for defamation after a 2005 article he published through Citron about GTX Global.

He rebranded the site as Citron Research in 2007.

Left researches and short sells companies he believes to be engaged in fraud, have been suspiciously promoted, or have been mistakenly overpriced by the stock market.

In 2007, the case was dismissed under California's anti-SLAPP statutes which cover writings about publicly traded companies as matters of public interest.

In 2008, Left released a report in which he concluded that Home Solutions was not transparent about the company's relationship with American Renaissance.

Home Solutions had loaned money to American Renaissance before the "partnership" was disclosed publicly.

As a result of Left's research, Home Solutions’ stock plummeted.

Starting in 2012, Left published multiple reports about Questcor Pharmaceuticals centered around incorrect labeling of the drug Acthar's ingredients.

When Questcor was acquired by Mallinckrodt, Left criticized the new company for continued misconduct.

Several of Left's reports have become highly publicized, including a 2012 report on the legality of operations by Nu Skin Enterprises, and a 2015 report on Valeant Pharmaceuticals bringing attention to inflated sales.

In October 2015, The Globe and Mail of Toronto, quoted independent research firm 5i Research Inc CEO Peter Hodson, as stating that "What they seem to do quite well is they're able to spin existing facts into a horrible scenario. It reads very badly," and that "Their job as a company is to create the most amount of panic so they and their clients can make the most amount of money."

In 2016, Left was banned for five years by the Hong Kong Market Misconduct Tribunal (chaired by Mr Justice Michael Hartmann) for allegedly disclosing false or misleading information in connection with the publication of a research report on Chinese property developer Evergrande Group, and so inducing transactions under the Securities and Futures Ordinance.

Although Left's report was correct, his punishment was not rescinded.

Despite being sued by multiple companies for the reports he has released, Left claims he has never lost a case in the United States; however, before Citron Research, the National Futures Association sanctioned Left and stated that he "made false and misleading statements to cheat, defraud or deceive a customer in violation of NFA compliance rules."

Left was born in a Detroit suburb to a Jewish family and later moved with his family to Coral Springs, Florida.

He attended Coral Springs High School where he was a member of the debate team and president of the Jewish youth group.

In 2017, Left was called 'The Bounty Hunter of Wall Street' by The New York Times.

Left gained further notoriety following his announced short of GameStop, precipitating a short squeeze that has hurt him and other short sellers in the short term.

Citron launched 51 investigative reports against S&P 500 companies, as well as several Chinese companies, citing allegations of pyramid schemes, ineffective products and accounting, or business frauds.

He was a keynote speaker at the 2017 and 2018 Harvard Business School Investment Conference.

Citron Research published a report on May 19, 2019, regarding African eCommerce company Jumia, one month after its IPO had resulted in shares values rising about 250 percent.