Why ‘The Big Short’ fame Michael Burry ‘put’ everything except Estee Lauder

Renowned investor Michael Burry, who was portrayed by Batman actor Christian Bale in the movie ‘The Big Short’, is back in the news after it was revealed through SEC filings that he adopted a PUT position on all his holdings, except one—Estee Lauder.

Among the major changes in stance is his PUT position on tech giant Nvidia, signalling to the market that he is not entirely convinced with the AI race.

The market tends to take Burry seriously ever since his successful calls ahead of both the housing market crash and the burst of the dot-com bubble.

He also assumed PUT positions on Chinese tech, including Alibaba, Baidu, JD com, and PDD Holdings, signalling a clear negative stance towards the entire eastern tech sector. Chinese travel giant Trip com Group was also in a PUT position.

He also abandoned diversified positions in speciality stocks. This could mean he expects a market correction on the horizon in the US.

However, his lone LONG position in Estee Lauder stands out—he not only did not exit it but also doubled his stake, making the luxury beauty a safe bet.

Burry, through his firm Scion Asset Management, shrunk its portfolio to just these seven positions, bringing it down from the earlier 13. His overall portfolio value, however, rose from $77.4 million to $199.2 million.

The ones that exited the portfolio were Molina Healthcare, HCA Healthcare, Oscar Health, Bruker Corp, V.F. Corp, Canada Goose, American Coastal Insurance, and Magnera Corp.

Burry’s first-quarter portfolio is his most concentrated ever and could be called one of the most bearish stances in recent market history. Burry’s history of identifying potential market bubbles signals a larger issue that begs the question—are the US and Chinese tech sectors overvalued?

Business