And there’s not a ready investment available that would allow one to bet against securities backed by student loans — no index like the one<br />that hedge fund managers depicted in “The Big Short” used to bet against mortgages before the crisis.<br />“If I could have gone to Goldman Sachs ‘R’ Us and said, ‘I’ll take a short on this tranche, a short on<br />that tranche,’ I would have done that, all day, every day,” said Taylor Mann, a researcher who has studied the student-loan market in granular detail, over a recent taco dinner in Athens, Tex., near where he lives.<br />Still, his take on the student-loan market, which he has described in a research paper as an “education bubble” backed by “unambiguously toxic” loans, has resonated for some: Mr. Trafton admires his work,<br />and on SumZero, an online platform catering to investment professionals, Mr. Mann’s short recommendations on stocks like Capella Education, Apollo Education and Navient attracted top popularity ratings.<br />isn’t available, no, we don’t have any bespoke investment products,” he added, “it was like, ‘I’ve got to move on.’”<br />Mr. Mann is now focused on starting a hedge fund that looks for compelling trades in currencies<br />and stocks, rather than just trades related to student loans.
