They Call Her ‘the Assassin’ on Wall Street—and She Has a New Target

LONDON — Fahmi Quadir had the kind of career any short seller would envy: a record of bringing down companies like the fintech giant Wirecard, a fearsome nickname—“ the assassin”—and two Netflix documentaries highlighting her work uncovering corporate malfeasance.

Now, she’s walking away from it all. After a decade spent driving stocks lower, Quadir has decided she wants to do the opposite—help push them up.

For her next act, Quadir is setting her sights on South Korea, hunting for hidden gems in the world’s hottest stock market. From her London base, she is up by 2 a.m. most days, calling locals and sifting through data to find companies ripe for a shake up. This summer, she’ll make her debut as an activist investor there.

It is quite the shift for the 35-year-old American, who for years stood as one of the last of her kind on Wall Street: a hedge-fund manager who bet exclusively against stocks. Her fund, Safkhet Capital, had no hedges or long positions—just a handful of bets against companies she believed were predatory businesses or frauds.