It is tough watching the candidate you backed lose an election.  But when you lose a billion bucks on the market rally that followed, it becomes even harder, even if you still have $29 billion left.  Still, this could rank as the biggest losing election bet in history.  Is there a bit of karma in this?

Gregory Zuckerman and Juliet Chung report for the Wall Street Journal that George Soros, aka Dr. Evil, lost twice in the election of Donald Trump to the presidency:

Billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros lost nearly $1 billion as a result of the stock-market rally spurred by Donald Trump’s surprise presidential election. (snip)

Last year, Mr. Soros returned to trading at Soros Fund Management LLC, which manages about $30 billion for Mr. Soros and his family. Mr. Soros was lured back by the opportunities to profit from what he saw as coming economic troubles.

Mr. Soros was cautious about the market going into November and became more bearish immediately after Mr. Trump’s election, according to people close to the matter. The stance proved a mistake—the stock market has rallied on expectations that Mr. Trump’s policies will boost corporate earnings and the overall economy.

As a result, some of Mr. Soros’s trading positions incurred losses approaching $1 billion, the people say. Mr. Soros adjusted his positions and exited many of his bearish bets late last year, avoiding further losses, the people added.

Don’t worry about Soros being unable to fund David Brock’s latest attempts to be relevant: overall, his portfolio did quite well last year.  But I do hope he continues to let his politics drive his investments. 

Hat tip: Ed Lasky