Scion Asset Management

Michael Burry

Michael Burry is an American investor who trained as a doctor before ever running a hedge fund. He earned his MD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, then posted detailed stock analyses on the Silicon Investor message board in 1996 while completing his residency at Stanford. His value-oriented picks were thorough enough to attract established investors who urged him to start a fund, and Scion Capital launched in 2000 with their backing. After closing it in 2008, he reopened the firm as Scion Asset Management in 2013. Burry is a deep value investor in the tradition of Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, whose "Security Analysis" he cites as his foundation. He has said his stock picking is "100% based on the concept of a margin of safety," buying businesses at a discount to their intrinsic value and holding through market noise rather than pushing companies to change. Burry is best known for predicting the 2008 housing crisis. Studying subprime lending practices in 2003-2004, he convinced Goldman Sachs and other firms to sell him credit default swaps against vulnerable mortgage bonds. As he paid premiums on the positions, his investors revolted, demanded to withdraw their capital, and threatened lawsuits. When his thesis proved correct, he earned a personal profit of $100 million and over $700 million for his remaining investors. The bet was chronicled in Michael Lewis's "The Big Short" and the 2015 film adaptation starring Christian Bale.