Any fans of the 2015 film The Big Short will recognize Michael Burry. But is he based on an actual person? Who is it? And what is he doing now?
Adam McKay directs The Big Short, which stars Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt. The film is based on Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book, released in 2010, which examines the 2000s real estate market, specifically the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Paramount Pictures released the picture in December 2015 to great acclaim, earning $133 million and winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Christian Bale plays Michael Burry, a hedge fund manager at Scion Capital who expects a collapse in the US housing market.
In contrast to some of the other characters in The Big Short, Michael Burry did not request that his name be altered. So yeah, he is a genuine person.
The film presents him as a rather quirky hedge fund manager. He loves shorts and bare feet to fancy suits, and he thinks the US property market is a bubble that will burst.
He intends to establish a credit default swap market to profit from the housing market collapse. The banks condemn this proposal as ridiculous but are willing to take the other side of his bet.
He ended up risking more than $1 billion, which placed a lot of pressure on him to change his decision. But he stuck to his guns and refused to modify his mind.
He was accurate in his judgment, as the fund’s value climbed by 489% between 2000 and 2008.
What history does Michael Burry have?
Michael Burry was born in 1971 in San Jose, California. He studied economics at the University of California before obtaining his medical degree at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
In his free time, he studied finance and left Standford Hospital in 2000 to launch Scion Capital, his own hedge fund.
He first financed it with inheritance and family loans, but his reputation developed, and the fund’s earnings rapidly attracted further investment.
Michael Lewis writes in his work that:
“In his first year, 2001, the S&P dropped 11.88%. Scion was up 55%. The next year, the S&P 500 sank 22.1%, while Scion increased 16%. The next year, 2003, the stock market recovered and increased 28.69%, but Burry outperformed it again, returning 50%. By the end of 2004, he had managed $600 million and had turned money down.”
After The Big Short, what has Michael Burry accomplished?
In 2008, Burry liquidated his short bets and shuttered Scion Capital to concentrate on his assets.
In 2010, he argued in The New York Times that the subprime markets of 2003, 2004, and 2005 posed an increasing concern, which was obvious to everyone viewing. In the paper, he accused federal regulators of relying only on a few experts and failing to hear others’ concerns.
Burry started a new hedge fund, Scion Asset Management, in 2013. In 2020, it invested $121 million in Alphabet Inc. and $24.4 million in Facebook.
Burry is also an active investor in farmland, gold, and water. He stated, “Fresh, clean water cannot be taken for granted.”
In 2021, Michael Burry announced he was substantially short Tesla, citing a bubble and forecasting a crash. He declared at the end of the year that he was no longer short Tesla (after the stock’s value had increased by 100%).
What was said about Michael Burry by Christian Bale?
According to IMDb, Christian Bale wore Michael Burry’s genuine cargo shorts and t-shirt in the film and expressed optimism that the two of them may attend the Los Angeles premiere together. According to Christian Bale, “I want to sit next to him and see if he’s going to punch me in the f**king face”.
Does Michael Burry have an artificial eye?
Yes. When he was two years old, he had retinoblastoma in his left eye, a kind of retinal cancer. He now has a prosthetic eye.
What was Michael Burry’s most memorable comment from The Big Short?
This interaction with several Goldman Sachs officials is hard to surpass, particularly in retrospect, which helps to explain the film’s popularity.
Michael Burry: I’d want to purchase swaps on mortgage bonds. A credit default swap that will pay out if the underlying bond fails.
Goldman Sachs: Do you want to wager against the housing market?
Michael Burry: Yes.
Goldman Sachs: Why? These bonds will only collapse if millions of Americans do not pay their mortgages. This has never occurred in history. It seems like a bad investment.
Michael Burry: Yes, based on the current mood, the market, the banks, and popular culture, it’s a bad investment. But everyone is incorrect.
Goldman Sachs: Dr. Burry, this is Wall Street. We accept free money. We’re ready to sell you $5 million in credit default swaps on these mortgage bonds.
Michael Burry: Can we make it a hundred million?