Michael Burry

Born in 1971 in San Jose, California, Burry graduated from UCLA with an economics degree and went on to earn his MD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. While completing a medical residency in neurology at Stanford, he ran an investment discussion forum (siliconvalleyinvestor.com) that gained a following among professional investors. He founded Scion Capital in 2000 and generated exceptional returns during the dot-com bust by shorting overvalued tech stocks. Burry's analysis of the US housing market began around 2003-2005 when he dug into the actual loan files underlying mortgage-backed securities and found widespread evidence of deteriorating credit quality, fraudulent documentation, and untenable debt-to-income ratios. He determined that the AAA-rated tranches of CDOs were mispriced for systemic risk. He began purchasing credit default swaps (CDS) on mortgage-backed securities in 2005, a product that barely existed at the time and required custom contracts with major banks. His investors were initially furious as the positions lost money for two years before the housing market turned. When the subprime mortgage market collapsed in 2007, Burry's CDS positions generated approximately $700 million in profit for Scion, with Burry personally earning around $100 million. His story was told in Michael Lewis's 2010 book The Big Short and its 2015 film adaptation, in which he was portrayed by actor Christian Bale. He was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome as an adult, which he has credited for his ability to research deeply and maintain conviction against the crowd. After closing Scion Capital to outside investors in 2008, Burry reopened as Scion Asset Management. He became known for public market commentary through Twitter, including warnings about index fund bubble risks and other contrarian calls.