ANDREW LEFT

Left spent nine months in 1994 at a commodities brokerage, and the National Futures Association sanctioned him in 1998. He founded StockLemon.com in 2001 and renamed it Citron Research in 2007.

It was one of the first activist short outlets, publishing free reports alleging fraud or overvaluation.\n\nHis hits were real. Valeant fell more than 90% after Citron's 2015 report.

Of 18 Chinese companies Citron targeted, 16 fell, 15 of them by more than 70%. He called Evergrande in 2012, although Hong Kong hit him with a five-year trading ban over that report in 2016.\n\nHe also got plenty wrong.

He shorted Tesla, Shopify and Nvidia at various points, all of which became huge winners. After Muddy Waters published its anonymous report on Luckin Coffee in early 2020, Citron said it was long the stock.

Luckin admitted fabricating sales two months later.\n\nIn July 2024 he was indicted on fraud charges. On 1 June 2026 he was convicted on 13 counts, with sentencing now set for 1 December 2026.

Citron Research is his public research brand. It started life in 2001 as StockLemon.com and became Citron in 2007.

Left would pick a target, publish a punchy report on the website and on social media, and trade on the thesis. Citron Capital is the investment firm behind it.\n\nIn July 2024 the Justice Department indicted him on securities fraud charges and the SEC sued him the next day.

Both said he publicly pushed positions and then quietly traded the other way, making at least $20 million. On 1 June 2026 a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted him on 13 counts and acquitted him on four.

Sentencing, first set for 31 August 2026, has been moved to 1 December 2026, after a post-trial motions hearing on 17 November. He denies wrongdoing and has said he will appeal.

Left is a narrative short seller. He does not use complex quantitative models.

He reads financial statements, talks to industry sources and spots red flags, then writes a story that explains why a company is overvalued or fraudulent. The research is written for regular people, not just analysts.\n\nHis edge was distribution.

Publishing free research on social media let him move stocks with a single post. That amplified his profits, and it is exactly what prosecutors went after: the gap between what he told the public and how he traded.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals. In October 2015 Citron called Valeant the "pharmaceutical Enron" over its secret ties to a specialty pharmacy.

The stock was already sliding from its $250-plus summer peak, and Citron's report helped turn the slide into a collapse. It went on to fall more than 90% from the top, and CEO Michael Pearson was out by March 2016.

His Evergrande call in 2012 was also proven right, a decade early.

Two, and the second is far worse. First, GameStop.

In January 2021 Citron said the stock was going "back to $20 fast" when it traded around $40. Reddit's WallStreetBets squeezed it as high as $483.

Left said he covered most of the short at around $90 at "a loss of 100%", and Citron said it would stop publishing short research. Second, the trading behind the tweets.

Prosecutors said that for years he told the public one thing and traded the opposite, and in June 2026 a jury agreed on 13 counts. There is also an older warning sign.

In 1998 the National Futures Association sanctioned him for making false and misleading statements to a customer.

Left's stated belief is that markets can sustain frauds and overvaluations for years, and that his job was to speed up the correction by publishing research. He pitched himself as the sunlight in the room, publishing openly in an industry that usually works in secret.\n\nThe jury in his 2026 trial saw the flaw in that pitch.

When the person holding the flashlight is also trading on where it points, the research stops being disinfectant and becomes a tool.

Married to Stephanie Left. They have four children and live in Boca Raton, Florida.

He was born on 9 July 1970 in the Detroit suburbs. His public identity is almost entirely Citron Research and his posts on X.

Graduated from Northeastern University in 1993. No advanced degree.

He learned the markets on the job, starting in 1994 at a high-pressure commodities brokerage called Universal Commodity Corp.

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