'Big Short' investor Michael Burry blasts Reddit-fueled GameStop rally as 'unnatural, insane, and dangerous'
- Michael Burry criticized retail investors for working together to drive up GameStop's stock price.
- The "Big Short" investor described the behavior as "dangerous" and called for legal and regulatory action in a quickly deleted tweet.
- Burry's Scion Asset Management may have made a 1,400% gain on GameStop in under four months.
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Michael Burry slammed day traders who have worked in concert to boost GameStop's stock price and squeeze short-sellers in recent days, and called on federal regulators to investigate them.
"If I put $GME on your radar, and you did well, I'm genuinely happy for you," the Scion Asset Management boss tweeted on Tuesday.
"However, what is going on now - there should be legal and regulatory repercussions. This is unnatural, insane, and dangerous," he added, tagging the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement arm. The tweet was deleted minutes later.
Burry's billion-dollar bet against the US housing market was chronicled in Michael Lewis' "The Big Short," and he was portrayed by Christian Bale in the movie adaptation of the book.
Scion owned 1.7 million GameStop shares at the end of September. Assuming Burry hasn't altered the size of the holding, it has ballooned in value from about $17 million to $250 million as of Tuesday's close - an almost 1,400% gain in under four months.
Retail investors, including members of the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets, have made concerted efforts to drive GameStop shares higher and squeeze short-sellers such as Melvin Capital. They helped to send GameStop's stock price up as much as 145% on Monday, then as much as 95% on Tuesday.
GameStop shares jumped another 45% in after-hours trading after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted the word "Gamestonk!!" along with a link to the WallStreetBets subreddit.