Who Is Michael Burry?

Michael Burry is a physician-turned-hedge-fund-manager who became a household name through Michael Lewis’s book and the movie The Big Short. As the founder of Scion Asset Management, Burry is famous for spotting massive systemic risks long before the rest of the market sees them. His analytical rigor, often attributed to his self-diagnosed Asperger’s, allows him to process vast amounts of data and hold contrarian positions under extreme pressure.

In 2005, while the world was celebrating an endless housing boom, Burry read hundreds of pages of mortgage-backed-security prospectuses and discovered the subprime market was destined to collapse. He convinced major banks to write him Credit Default Swaps against those bonds — and held the position through years of brutal carry costs until the 2008 crash. The result: $700 million for his investors, $100 million for himself, and a permanent place in financial history.

Today, Burry’s portfolio is defined by extreme concentration, contrarian macro bets, and a willingness to buy what others won’t touch — what he calls the “Ick Factor.” He warns about index-fund bubbles, accumulates water rights and agricultural land, and uses social media (handle: “Cassandra”) to flag macro risks that mainstream investors prefer to ignore.

Burry’s most recent SEC Form 13F filing shows a portfolio dominated by bearish positions on richly valued AI & data-analytics names, hedged with a healthcare and energy basket. Total portfolio value: $1.38 billion. Holdings: 8 positions.