Investor Michael Burry has taken a huge short against the U.S. stock market, to the tune of more than $1.6 billion.
Burry, who predicted the subprime mortgage crisis of the 2000s, bought nearly $890 million in puts against the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, which tracks the overall stock market. Through his hedge fund Scion Asset Management, he also bought some $740 million in puts against an ETF that tracks the Nasdaq’s 100 largest nonfinance companies — essentially, a short against the tech sector.
The massive short positions were revealed on Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. More than 93% of Burry’s entire portfolio is betting against the stock market, and in essence, the health of the economy.
Burry’s investments are watched very closely, considering his success in predicting the housing market crash. At the time, many investors doubted his shorts and even tried to pull out their capital from his fund, but he ended up being right, yielding a nearly 500% return on investment from the time he founded Scion Capital in 2000 to 2008.