double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs vietnamese seafood double-skinned crabs mud crab exporter double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs crabs crab exporter soft shell crab crab meat crab roe mud crab sea crab vietnamese crabs seafood food vietnamese sea food double-skinned crab double-skinned crab soft-shell crabs meat crabs roe crabs
Business

Michael Burry of ‘The Big Short’ discloses $530M bet against Tesla

By
Will Feuer
Published May 18, 2021, 12:47 p.m. ET

Michael Burry, who shot to fame for predicting and profiting off of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, has revealed a more than half-a-billion-dollar bet against Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Burry’s firm, Scion Asset Management, said Monday in a regulatory filing that it owned puts against 800,100 shares of Tesla as of March 31 with a total value of $534 million. The puts, which are bearish options, give Scion the right to sell Tesla shares at a set price on or before a specified date. 

Investors profit from puts when the underlying stock price falls.

The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission did not reveal the set price of the puts nor their expiration date. The filing also did not reveal when Burry initiated the wager against Tesla nor how much Burry’s firm paid for the puts.

Shares of Tesla fell more than 4 percent Monday after the disclosure, but were up nearly 2 percent in midday trading Tuesday. Shares of the company are down almost 20 percent since Jan. 1. 

Robotics arms install the front seats to the Tesla Model 3 at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California.
Tesla shares fell more than 4 percent Monday after Scion Asset Management disclosed their holdings. The Washington Post via Getty Images

Burry was propelled to fame when he and his firm predicted the 2008 mortgage crisis well before just about anyone else. He was depicted in Michael Lewis’ book “The Big Short” and portrayed by Christian Bale in the Oscar-winning movie of the same name.

More recently, Burry was vocal about his bet on video game-retailer GameStop, helping to spark the Reddit-fueled short squeeze that sent shares of the company skyrocketing earlier this year. However, Burry’s firm cashed out of its position in the company in 2020, missing out on the most wild gains, which were seen in January. 

Elon Musk.
Michael Burry has criticized Tesla’s reliance on regulatory credits to generate profit. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images

Burry’s latest bet against Tesla isn’t necessarily surprising. He said in a since-deleted tweet in December that his firm was betting against shares of Tesla. He added at the time that Tesla’s reliance on regulatory credits to hit profit targets raised red flags.

Tesla critics have long pointed to the company’s sale of regulatory credits to generate profit as unsustainable.