Michael Burry of ‘The Big Short’ dumps all his previous stock holdings and adds just one name
Famed investor Michael Burry, known for calling the subprime mortgage crisis, dumped all of his existing stock holdings at the end of the second quarter, according to a new regulatory filing. “The Big Short” investor sold out of all 11 of his stock positions last quarter, including Meta, Alphabet, Warner Bros. Discovery, Global Payments and Bristol-Myers Squibb, the filing showed. He also ended his card game against Apple at the end of June. Burry added a stake — $3.3 million in GEO Group — last quarter, the filing showed. The investor has been in and out of this private prison operator for the past two years. Shares of GEO rose more than 8% on Monday, paring losses in 2022 to about 5%. Still, the large selloff in Burry̵[ads1]7;s portfolio perhaps conveys how bearish he is on the market. The investor, who now runs the hedge fund Scion Asset Management, has expressed his pessimistic views on the markets and the economy on Twitter. Most recently, Burry warned that “addictive” consumer spending signals more trouble ahead, even as economic data showed signs of improvement. He suggested that consumers were still splurging on goods and services at a time when inflation remained at a high level for decades. In May, he drew parallels between today’s market environment and that of 2008, saying it was like “watching a plane crash”. Burry had also sounded the alarm about massive income compressions. Burry became famous by betting against mortgages before the 2008 crisis. Burry was depicted in Michael Lewis’ book “The Big Short” and the subsequent Oscar-winning film of the same name. Since the filings reflect only one holding, it’s unclear whether Burry is taking bearish bets in other ways that don’t appear in these quarterly reports. Burry may use short positions or the use of sophisticated derivatives.
