The Big Long
One of the boldest stock pickers on the planet once made a market call so big they made a movie about it. Now, Michael Burry is back! Throwing the cat amongst the pigeons, the star of ‘The Big Short’ is making an equally confident ‘Big Long!’
Telling the story of 2008’s financial collapse, ‘The Big Short’ is a cult classic among investors. Christian Bale plays the role of Michael Burry, who (spoiler alert!) bets against the system to make a cool 493%. Come the end of the movie, Christian Bale with his fake eye and bad haircut was telling you to rehydrate on water stocks, and retreat to something safe. Before you could raise a hand, the credits rolled, and Burry went underground.
Recently, however, he’s returned! Staying true to his contrarian roots, Burry has announced a sizable 3% stake in GameStop! For context, shares in the electronics retailer have been hit for 70% in the past year, the firm fighting for survival. Buying stock in such a systemically troubled company is like trying to catch a falling knife, but he believes “it looks worse than it really is.” Those words have trickled down to the trading floor…
When hard-earned money is behind a struggling company, investors will cling to every possible hope. As news filtered through about Burry’s backing of GameStop, it wasn’t surprising to see the shares pop! As sentiment swung, the boos and whistles toward the company silenced. Market players started hearing a bull case for the stock that would, only a few days ago, have gotten you laughed out of the room!
Between you and me, nobody’s overnight blessing actually changes the numbers at hand. In fact, one look at a free 13F form filed by Burry’s firm, Scion Capital Management, would reveal not just his investment in GameStop, but in Disney, Alphabet, and Facebook, too. The more you know!
