JASON MUDRICK
Founding Mudrick Capital and famously making about $200 million on AMC in a single month during the 2021 meme-stock mania.
Jason Mudrick is a Harvard-trained lawyer who found his calling in the wreckage of broken companies. He started Mudrick Capital in 2009 with just $5 million and built it past $3 billion. His most famous move was pure cold-blooded trading. In January 2021 he made roughly $200 million on AMC and GameStop, then reportedly sold his AMC stake the same day he bought more, calling the stock massively overvalued. That is the Mudrick style. Contrarian, aggressive, and unsentimental.
Net Worth
Undisclosed
Nationality
American
Time Horizon
Medium-Term
Risk Appetite
8 / 10
Fund
Mudrick Capital Management
CAREER & BACKGROUND
Mudrick started on Wall Street in 2000 as an associate in Merrill Lynch's mergers and acquisitions banking group. In 2001 he joined Contrarian Capital Management, where he spent seven years as a managing director and portfolio manager, building the Contrarian Equity Fund to around $400 million in distressed debt and post-bankruptcy equities.
He left in 2008 and founded Mudrick Capital in 2009 with $5 million. The firm grew to $1.3 billion by 2016, $2.7 billion by 2019, and about $3.3 billion by mid-2022.
In 2019 it was one of the top-performing hedge funds in the world, up 28.8 percent versus an 11.4 percent average. Then came the 2021 AMC and GameStop trades that put him on the front page.
COMPANIES & ROLES
Mudrick Capital Management, formerly Contrarian Capital Management and Merrill Lynch
INVESTING STYLE & PHILOSOPHY
Mudrick runs stressed and distressed credit with a contrarian, event-driven approach. In plain English, he buys the debt of companies in or near bankruptcy, often aiming to turn that debt into equity ownership once the company restructures.
He also does deep-value special situations, betting on messy corporate events others avoid. He is hands-on in restructurings, frequently taking a lead role.
His rule is blunt. He either drives the process with a seat on the creditor committee or he exits the investment.
He is not a passive holder waiting to see how things shake out.
THE PLAYBOOK
Risk Approach
Mudrick takes aggressive, concentrated risk and is comfortable with volatility that would scare most managers. His returns swing hard from year to year.
The AMC episode showed both sides. He made a fortune fast, but he was also willing to buy and dump the same stock in a day when the math changed.
Money Habits
Mudrick keeps his personal spending largely out of the press, which is unusual for a manager who made such splashy headlines. What is public is the way he thinks about money.
Cold and mathematical. When AMC shares spiked in 2021, sentiment meant nothing to him.
He reportedly bought more shares and sold his stake the same day, flatly calling the stock massively overvalued while retail traders were treating it like a movement. He also serves as chairman of Dex Media, a company his fund controls, showing his habit of steering the businesses he invests in rather than watching from the sidelines.
BIGGEST WIN
January 2021 is the legend. Mudrick's firm made roughly $200 million in a single month, with the bulk coming from debt and equity options tied to AMC Entertainment plus out-of-the-money options on GameStop.
He turned the meme-stock frenzy into a fortune by holding the debt and playing the options while the crowd chased the shares. Zoom out and the 2019 result, up 28.8 percent, was arguably a purer show of skill in distressed credit.
BIGGEST MISTAKE
Mudrick's aggressive style cuts both ways, and his AMC dealings drew criticism when the fund reportedly bought shares and quickly sold, calling the stock overvalued, which some read as unseemly given AMC had just used him for financing. More broadly, the honest risk is his volatility.
A manager who takes big, concentrated distressed bets can post a monster year like 2019 and then a rough stretch when the cycle turns against him. Concentrated conviction is a double-edged sword.
FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Mudrick is a contrarian to the core, drawn to the deep-value corners of the market that others find too ugly or too complicated. He believes real money is made in restructurings, where a creditor who understands the legal process can convert cheap debt into valuable equity.
His philosophy is to be active, not passive. He wants control or influence over how a bankruptcy plays out.
And he treats price as king, willing to flip even a beloved meme stock the moment he decides it is worth far less than the crowd thinks.
FAMILY & PERSONAL LIFE
Mudrick was born on February 23, 1975. He has two children.
He keeps most of his personal life private.
EDUCATION
Mudrick earned a political science degree from the University of Chicago in 1997, then a law degree from Harvard Law School in 2000, and was admitted to the New York State Bar. The law training is not decoration.
Distressed investing is a courtroom sport, and being a lawyer gives him an edge in the bankruptcy fights where his money is made.
BOOKS & RESOURCES
Mudrick has not written a book
His SALT Talk on event-driven investing and his appearances at the Wharton Restructuring and Distressed Investing Conference are the clearest windows into how he approaches broken companies
QUOTES (3)
We either drive the process with a seat on the committee or exit the investment.
We look to work with the group of lenders owning over half of the loan to extend maturities, supply new super senior capital, or both.
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