'The Big Short' investor Michael Burry sold most of his US stocks last quarter - but added 3 new holdings
- Michael Burry slashed his US stock portfolio in the third quarter.
- "The Big Short" investor has been warning of a devastating market crash for months.
Michael Burry took a knife to his stock portfolio in the third quarter, slashing it from more than 20 holdings to only six as of September 30, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed on Monday. The sales align with his long-held expectation that the stock market is in a bubble and barreling towards a historic crash.
Burry's Scion Asset Management revealed new stakes in aerospace-and-defense giant Lockheed Martin, oil-drilling equipment specialist Now, and Scynexis, a biotech company. It also reduced its CoreCivic bet by 68% and its Geo Group position by 54%, meaning a small stake in CVS Health was the only position left intact.
Scion sold all of its other holdings, including the call options it held on Alphabet and Facebook stock, and the bearish put options it owned on Tesla stock and Cathie Wood's flagship Ark Innovation ETF at the end of June. Scion's portfolio was worth only $42 million at the end of September - a fraction of its almost $140 million value (excluding options) three months earlier.
Scion didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Burry is best known for his billion-dollar bet against the US housing bubble in the mid-2000s, which was immortalized in the book and the movie "The Big Short." The contrarian investor also laid the groundwork for the GameStop short-squeeze this year when he invested in the video-game retailer in 2019.
The fund manager has been warning of an epic bubble in asset prices, predicting a historic market crash, and ringing the inflation alarm for several months now. He has built a devoted following thanks to his dire prognostications and habit of disguising stock tickers in his tweets.
Most recently, he accused Tesla CEO Elon Musk of selling stock not to raise cash or to pay taxes, but to capitalize on his electric-vehicle company's 12-fold gain in valuation since the start of last year.