Ackman's Fund Is Making Money — So Why Are Investors Down 6%?
Bill Ackman told analysts on a Pershing Square earnings call August 13, 2026, that "the trading of PSUS is frankly absurd" and said the firm intends to fix a gap between what the fund's investments are worth and what its shares sell for. The comments came one day after Pershing Square Holdings published its semiannual financial statements and two days after Pershing Square USA released its 2026 Semi-Annual Report (Investing.com).
Here's the situation in plain terms. Pershing Square USA is a closed-end fund. That means it raised a fixed amount of money by selling shares to the public, and now those shares trade on a stock exchange like any other stock. The twist: the share price doesn't have to match the value of what the fund actually owns. The fund's investments might be worth $100 million, but the shares could trade as if they're worth only $90 million. That gap is called a discount.
Pershing Square USA, Ltd. — listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PSUS with Ackman as CEO and Ryan Israel as CIO — reported that its investments were worth $50.32 per share in its semi-annual filing dated August 11, 2026. The fund's holdings have gained about 2% since it went public. But people who bought shares on day one are down 5.9% (PSUS Semi-Annual Report).
How can the investments be up while the investors are down? Think of it like buying a gift card. The card has $100 loaded on it, but you paid $108 because of fees. Then the store says, "Sorry, we'll only buy that card back from you for $94." The value of what's on the card went up a little, but you lost money because of the fees you paid upfront and the discount the market is now applying. For PSUS, that combination has left day-one buyers down 5.9% even though the fund's portfolio gained 2%.
Ackman is not happy about it. Calling the trading level "absurd" on a recorded call tells you management thinks the discount is a mistake by the market, not a sign that the fund's investments are bad. He said the firm plans to "address" the discount but didn't say how. Closed-end fund managers have a few standard tools: they can buy back their own shares, offer to buy shares from investors at a price closer to the real value, or in extreme cases change the fund's structure entirely. Which tool Pershing Square might use is unknown.
A related fund, Pershing Square Holdings, offers a comparison. PSH's 2026 Annual Investor Presentation, uploaded February 2026, reported growth of 20.9% in the value of its investments (PSH Annual Investor Presentation). PSH trades on Euronext Amsterdam and has dealt with its own discount problems over the years. In the UK, where many closed-end funds are listed, discounts are a normal part of how these funds work, and the tools for fixing them are well known.
The broader context here is how these funds launch. When a closed-end fund goes public, the initial price usually includes fees paid to the banks that manage the sale. So investors are paying more than the fund's investments are worth from the start. The fund has to earn a return just to get investors back to break-even before any discount even appears. For PSUS, those upfront fees plus the discount that opened up afterward means a 5.9% loss for day-one buyers, even as the portfolio itself went up.
The earnings call also covered Pershing Square Holdings' Q2 2026 results, which Ackman called a strong start to the period (Yahoo Finance). PSH's semiannual financial statements and the Investment Manager's Report were published August 12, 2026, with the Materials page also listing July 2026 materials and prior annual reports (PSH Materials).
There are a few reasons this matters beyond PSUS itself. If the fund buys back shares to close the discount, that uses cash it could otherwise invest. A discount on a fund run by one of the most famous investors in the world also draws attention that goes beyond this one fund. And the gap between PSH's 20.9% growth and PSUS's 2% gain raises questions about whether the two funds hold the same investments and why their results differ so much.
None of these questions has a public answer yet. Ackman has signaled intent, not a specific plan. The discount could shrink on its own if the market warms up, or it could persist and force management to take bigger action. For now, the number that matters is the gap: investments up 2%, IPO investors down 5.9%, and a manager who calls the spread "absurd."
