It was just after 6:30 am on November 22, 2015 and Paul Singer, President of Elliott Management, had just lost $5 million in a matter of seconds. Nonetheless Singer was smiling. Which might be surprising given his reputation as a no-nonsense activist hedge fund manager, but also because one of his firm’s holdings, Cabelas Inc. (NYSE:CAB), had just released an abysmal earnings report, and its price was plunging in pre-market trading. At the time, Singer held an undisclosed 1% stake — or about 753,000 shares — of Cabelas through Elliott Management’s various partnerships. However, Singer was pleased because he intended...