Michael Burry of “The Big Short” fame has terminated his hedge fund’s SEC registration, signaling that he’ll no longer manage money for external clients.
Scion Asset Management was deregistered on Monday, according to regulatory disclosures. Burry’s fund managed about $155 million for four accounts in late March, per its most recent Form ADV filing.
Burry posted a screenshot of Scion’s terminated status in an X post on Wednesday evening. The contrarian investor foreshadowed the move in a previous post on October 30, his first since April 2023.
“Sometimes, we see bubbles,” he wrote. “Sometimes, there is something to do about it. Sometimes, the only winning move is not to play.”
In subsequent posts, he compared the artificial intelligence boom to the dot-com bubble, fueling fresh concerns that AI speculation has driven stock valuations to unsustainable levels, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 hitting record highs recently.
Burry shot to fame for predicting — and profiting from — the 2008 US housing market crash. His massive bet against the housing bubble was chronicled in the book and movie “The Big Short.”
The Scion boss rattled financial markets last week when his firm’s third-quarter portfolio update revealed it owned bearish put options on two leading AI stocks, Nvidia and Palantir, as of September 30.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Burry traded barbs after the disclosure. Karp described Scion’s bets as “batshit crazy” in a televised interview, prompting Burry to retort on X that he wasn’t surprised Karp “cannot crack a simple 13F.”
In his X post on Wednesday, Burry called out media outlets for reporting he’d bet $912 million against Palantir. He clarified that he’d purchased 50,000 put option contracts on Palantir stock, each covering 100 shares with a premium of $1.84 per share, for a total outlay of $9.2 million.
“That was done last month,” he wrote. “On to much better things Nov 25th.”
Burry has been teasing his next move and his “unchained” status for several days.
As of Thursday morning, his X bio reads: “Official X account for ‘The Big Short’ Michael Burry, M.D., dubbed ‘Cassandra’ by Warren Buffett. Now unchained -??? launches Nov 25th, Stay Tuned!”
This isn’t goodbye
Burry made a similar move in 2008 after his big short paid off. He closed Scion Capital after facing intense pressure from clients, with some demanding their money back before the housing bubble finally burst. He relaunched it as Scion Asset Management in 2013, tightly controlling its number of external clients.
Burry is one of several high-profile investors who’ve closed their doors to outside capital. Doing so can release them from the pressures of answering to clients and being responsible for their money, and duties such as writing quarterly letters and talking them through key positions.
John Paulson, who along with Burry, was one of the few people to successfully short the housing bubble, converted his hedge fund into a family office in 2020.
Even when big-name investors cash out their clients, they can still be significant market players with their own money.
Billionaires David Tepper, who owns the Carolina Panthers and runs Appaloosa Management, and Stanley Druckenmiller, who worked with George Soros and runs Duquesne Capital, handed back external funds years ago but are still closely followed on Wall Street.
Similarly, Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors has continued to be an active stock picker and prominent commentator since converting his hedge fund into a family office in 2018.
The late Julian Robertson, who founded hedge fund Tiger Management, arguably grew more influential after he returned outside money and began focusing on seeding former employees and promising investors.
The so-called Tiger Cub funds have spawned a generation of billionaire investors such as Chase Coleman, Andreas Halvorsen, Philippe Laffont, and more.
Burry may be handing his clients their money back, but his social-media posts suggest he’s not going anywhere — and may feel more liberated to say and do what he wants.
