Chamath Palihapitiya Shares Lessons Learned After Tough Week For SPACs

The last week has been a tough one for investors in many growth stocks. SPACs is one segment that was hit particularly hard.

Lessons Learned From Palihapitiya: SPAC King Chamath Palihapitiya shared on Twitter Inc TWTR how much he lost in the week and his thoughts on the SPAC market.

“It’s been a super tough week for me and I’m sure a super tough week for some of you as well. Here is how I’m doing after Friday and what I’ve learned…” Palihapitiya tweeted.

The investor broke down his lessons learned during the week as follows:

“The first thing I tried to do yesterday was take a step back and try to see the bigger picture,” he said. Palihapitiya went on to say that March 2020 could be a guide as markets were down 20% then. Is this current market environment the same or different? Palihapitiya asks.

He said he looked at his relative performance vs the S&P500, which breaks down as 3.6% compared to 2.3%, or 56% above the benchmark. He said he's not a "huge fan" of these numbers.

“I re-questioned my goals and concluded my strategic view is still right: that inequality and climate change investments are a once in a lifetime opportunity to make hundreds of billions of dollars AND do the right thing," he said. “I freed up some capital by selling some shares in $SPCE so I can keep investing at scale without impacting my pace and strategic view.”

Palihapitiya added that he hated selling the shares but had to do it after his balance sheet shrank by nearly $2 billion during the week. Palihapitiya also said he has not sold any shares of any other SPAC he’s launched.

He went on to say that investing is hard, he is not perfect, and he is trying to learn just like his audience and followers on Twitter. “Be resilient and keep fighting,” he said.

Markets are volatile and unforgiving, Palihapitiya added. Companies that do valuable things tend to see their value reflected in gains.

“Find a way to make sure you are comfortable with what you own and if not, don’t be afraid to make changes. Prices are temporary but your peace of mind should not be,” he said.

Palihapitiya ended his tweet with the Persian adage: “This too shall pass.”

Related Link: 5 Things You Might Not Know About Chamath Palihapitiya

Sale of Virgin Galactic Stock: The tweet from Palihapitiya came after he was in the news Friday for selling his personal stake in Virgin Galactic Holdings SPCE.

Palihapitiya sold 6.2 million shares for around $211 million, according to Business Insider. It follows a similar sale in December.

Palihapitiya still owns 15.8 million shares in Virgin Galactic through Social Capital Hedosophia, the company that Palihapitiya and partner Ian Osborne used to take the space tourism company public via SPAC.

“I sold 6 million shares for $200 million, which I am planning to redirect into a large investment I am making towards fighting climate change,” Palihapitiya told Business Insider in an emailed statement. The investment will be made public in the next few months.

It’s been a super tough week for me and I’m sure a super tough week for some of you as well. Here is how I’m doing after Friday and what I’ve learned... pic.twitter.com/fX5YHdqBv6

— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) March 6, 2021

Disclosure: Author is long shares of SPCE.