Marc Cohodes should have made a spectacular killing out of the 2008 financial crisis. Instead the short-seller was caught in the crossfire among the troubled banks, and ended up retreating back to his farm Alder Lane in Northern California and raising chickens: "I was so beyond sick of the whole thing and wanted nothing to do with it.”

But even though he remains on the farm, the Chicago native could not stay away from the market, or from vocally attacking his latest short-selling targets, lately in fiery Twitter exchanges. “We have fewer chickens now,” he admits.