Michael Burry, the investor of “The Huge Brief” fame.Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Photographs
Michael Burry stayed quiet, guess large on Chinese language tech giants, and noticed one inventory wager repay in 2024.
The investor of “The Huge Brief” fame boosted his Alibaba and JD.com stakes and purchased into Baidu.
The RealReal inventory has surged greater than sevenfold since Burry invested in early 2023.
Michael Burry stored a low profile, plowed cash into three Chinese language tech giants, and noticed a long-standing inventory guess repay in 2024.
Burry is greatest identified for predicting and benefiting from the collapse of the housing bubble within the mid-2000s. His contrarian wager was immortalized within the guide and movie “The Huge Brief.”
He is additionally well-known in monetary circles for predicting market crashes and recessions, investing in GameStop lengthy earlier than the video-game retailer turned a meme inventory. He additionally guess in opposition to Elon Musk’s Tesla, Cathie Wooden’s flagship Ark fund, Apple, a microchip fund that included Nvidia, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes lately.
Burry goes by Cassandra B.C. on X — a nod to the priestess in Greek mythology who was cursed to utter true prophecies however by no means to be believed.
In years previous, Burry incessantly shared his ideas on the markets, financial system, and different topics on Twitter.
For instance, in summer time 2021, he warned of the “best speculative bubble of all time in all issues” and advised patrons of meme shares and cryptocurrencies that they have been careening towards the “mom of all crashes.”
Burry even caught Musk’s consideration with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO calling him a “damaged clock” in late 2021. Furthermore, the investor set alarm bells ringing on Wall Road in early 2023 with a one-word put up: “Promote.”
Nevertheless, Burry did not put up in any respect final 12 months and hasn’t shared something along with his major account’s 1.4 million followers since April 2023.
Burry’s Scion Asset Administration revealed in a first-quarter portfolio replace it had boosted its bets on Alibaba and JD.com, two Chinese language e-commerce titans. It additionally established a small place in Baidu, a search large that is been dubbed the “Chinese language Google.”
The Scion chief added to each the Alibaba and Baidu positions within the second quarter whereas paring his JD.com stake, however then ramped up all three wagers within the third quarter.
Within the 12 months earlier than September 2024, Scion quadrupled each its Alibaba and JD.com stakes. It went from proudly owning 50,000 Alibaba shares price $4.4 million to 200,000 shares price $21.2 million.
It raised its JD.com place from 125,000 shares price $3.6 million to 500,000 price $20 million. Ranging from scratch, it additionally amassed 125,000 Baidu shares price $13.2 million within the 9 months earlier than this previous September.
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These three shares accounted for 65% of the full $83 million worth of Scion’s portfolio, excluding choices, on the finish of September. Burry hedged his extremely concentrated portfolio by buying put choices in opposition to the three shares with a notional worth of $47 million within the third quarter.
Burry, a price investor who hunts for bargains, could have pounced on the trio as a result of he views them as undervalued. Chinese language shares have been hit by regulatory threats, issues in regards to the nation’s slowing financial system and real-estate disaster, rising geopolitical jitters, and skepticism in regards to the authorities’s stimulus plans.
It is price noting that quarterly portfolio filings solely paint a partial image of an investor’s holdings. They exclude shares bought quick, non-public investments, foreign-listed shares, and non-stock belongings like bonds and actual property. They’re additionally solely a snapshot of the portfolio on a single day in a three-month interval.
Aside from Alibaba and JD.com, the one inventory that Scion held onto for all of 2024 was The RealReal, an internet luxury-goods market.
The inventory has featured in Scion’s portfolio because the first quarter of 2023, when the agency owned 684,000 shares price about $862,000, or $1.26 every.
Scion nonetheless owned 500,000 shares on the finish of September, price practically $1.6 million at the moment. The inventory has jumped from just a little over $3 then to $8.73 at Wednesday’s shut.
The upshot is Burry has doubtless made a number of instances his cash on The RealReal, particularly if he was nonetheless holding the inventory when it surged final quarter.
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