Michael Burry Resource Page: Bio, Quotes, Investment Style, Videos etc

Michael Burry

THE PHYSICIAN TURNED MONEY MANAGER

The Guru behind Scion Capital

http://www.scioncapital.com/

Michael Burry created LLC, i.e. Scion Capital hedge fund and successfully handled for eight years. Then, in 2008, Michael eliminated this fund so that he could start his private investments. He was the only investor who took a daring step of investment in the field of mortgage during the expected crisis period.

Michael Burry, born in 1971, is a medical doctor having graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He did his residency in Stanford Hospital. It was during his night duty at this hospital where he used to work on his hobby of financial investments, which later became his full-time profession.

As a novice investor, he created his own blog during this time, posting his stock-market trends and opinion for making trades. This is when he started being noticed by other big-profiled fund managers in the market and investment banks such as Morgan Stanley.

He quit his medical career in 2000 and started his own investment company called Scion Capital. Although unaware of it initially, he had Asperger syndrome. This characterized his inability to interact socially and his preference for solitude. During the time that Burry was managing investments for people, he was uncomfortable talking to them. He communicated with his investors through letters to inform them on their investment progress.

Burry is the hedge manager who predicted the housing boom. He is the founder of Scion Capital LLC hedge fund, which he ran from 2000 to 2008.

He terminated the LLC hedge fund in 2008 for personal and professional reasons. However, he has continued investing since then. He developed his reputation as an investor by showing astonishing success in “value investing.” He was very successful from the start and showed an uncanny ability to predict the market.

During 2010, he invested in almond farms that he still owns it in California where he lives with his family.

Burry says whatever group he joins he feels like a stranger never comfortable and all the time busy analyzing that group. When he became an investor, he took it very seriously, as a full-time business.

During that time, he was already known as an investor due to his articles written in his blog in 1996. He was very accurate about stocks future and famous companies got interested in him. Nevertheless, he closed the website in the year 2000 because of his commitment with his newly developed company, Scion Capital.

Initially he ran this company by taking loans and by using his property. He derived this name from the fantasy novel of Terry Brooks the Scions of Shannara. In 2001, his company generated a big profit for the firms investors. Again, in 2002 and 2003 the company did very well by rising up to 50 percent. Due to his continuous success, Michael Burry had to manage $600 million at the end of 2004.

In 2005, he started researching in real estate that later on led him to get involved in mortgage business. His speculations were right. He did not only make a big profit privately as $100 million, but also earned his investors $700 million. Then, in 2008, his credit was liquidated, as he did not get any profit from the fund, which is why he started concentrating on investing personally.

He analyzed mortgage lending prices in 2003 and 2004 and accurately forecast that the bubble would burst by 2007. His study on residential real estate convinced him that subprime mortgages and the bonds based on these mortgages would start losing value when the original rates reset, which could happen within two years after commencement.

Based on this conclusion, he bought several hundred million dollars in credit default swaps against subprime deals that he thought were in danger. He believed that as the value of the bonds fell, the value of the credit default swaps would increase. No one thought these trades would work out in his favor and he faced constant pressure from his investors over his decisions.

However, his predictions proved correct moreover, he earned a personal profit of $100 million and $725 million for his remaining investors. Scion Capital managed to record returns of 489.33 percent between November 2000 and June 2008

In an interview with the New York Times, Burry said that investors who studied financial markets from 2003 to 2005 thoroughly could be able to see the risks in sub-prime markets. Recently Burry has been selected as a board chairperson of Pricetector, a famous company that serves as a platform for the retailers; the company have received a huge fund from Burry.

There is another aspect of Burry and that is he is also asked for tips as a good money manager, by various investors; in response he gives good guidance to the investors. Burry himself, is an investor in Bo Shan’s companies, his longtime colleague.

In a recent incident of Wall Street banks being sold to the investors, it was noted that Burry was not involved in such trading being called ABS CDOs; Burry only focused on residential mortgage and its securities. Burry’s predictions used to be very accurate as he knew that there will be a crisis in the financial system. This is the reason he thought of closing the fund and started his own investments.

Sometimes he found it hard to convince investors and his partners about the coming financial collapse. In addition, in 2006 he realized that even the government would not be able to take any action against the housing bubble. However, when crisis came he could do nothing to stop it, though he wrote letters to the investors in 2005 and 2006.

Burry keeps on giving lectures and speeches at various occasions. One such a speech he gave at Vanderbilt University, attended by a huge crowd. This speech was all about the housing bubble, but his listeners were mostly academicians.

He had a great vision about the subject and tried to inform as many people as possible. Michael delivers his speech in a very light funny mood by declaring that the finance professionals are not much smarter than the doctors are. He also makes it clear that he is prominent and popular only because of his performance in this field of finance.

Therefore, people should not think that it is because of social status. At the same time, he also has to face critics, as has been criticized in many articles by Bogle. People also realized that Burry is mostly interested in Ick investments.

Scion Capital Investment Returns

Year	Gross Return	Net Return	S&P 500
2000	8.20%	6.61%	-7.45%
2001	55.44%	44.67%	-11.88%
2002	16.08%	13.10%	-22.10%
2003	50.71%	40.81%	28.69%
2004	10.77%	8.86%	10.88%
2005	7.81%	6.49%	4.91%
2006	-18.16%	-18.16%	15.79%
2007	166.91%	138.27%	5.49%
2008 Q1	3.83%	3.09%	-9.45%
Since inception	696.94%	472.40%	5.20%

HIS INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY AND THE ICK FACTOR

Burry’s investment philosophy is to look for what he terms as “ick factor.” This is an investment in companies suffering from serious problems, but which are still, essentially, good investments. Following his philosophy of the ick factor, he once invested in a company where the executives had gone to jail.
Burry also had to make a decision of selling corporate CDS because of the Wall Street issue made against him and his investors. He personally thought that the CDS market would collapse. This prediction came true in 2005.However, the technical aspects of CDS were there, but synthetic CDOs caused the mortgage market to become more difficult to understand. Michael said Paulson as well as Bernanke could not realize the problem with the sub-prime market because they did not take it seriously. Even many people from government sector underestimated the issue though they were well aware of that crisis. He believes that there will be now an easy policy regarding money in the future. Michael also threw light on QE and QE2 that according to him is a risk. He has given a name of toxic twins to Fiat currency and as well as to the expansionary Fed as it will be very bad. He gave advice to never try to analyze a situation by yourself so that the chances of risk are less and you are prepared before time. Moreover, every investor should do their own prediction. In a way, you can say that every investor should have their own judgment and prediction.
He also described some important issues regarding mortgage, and he made it clear that he will not demonstrate his secrets about future investments. He has invested recently in a farm and in Silicon Valley and believes that here at Valley, there is a real capitalism. Burry said that small caps are as important as large one. In the end, he again emphasized a thorough analysis of everything before and after investing. He says that he cannot predict when people will not trust USTs.

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Shareholder letters:

4Q 2000 Annual Letter

1Q 2001
2Q 2001
3Q 2001

4Q 2001 Annual Letter

If anyone has access to Burry’s other shareholder letters, they can contact us anonymously @ tips(at)valuewalk.com

Articles:

Michael Burry’s Testimony Before The Financial Crisis Inquiry Committee
Betting on the Blind Side | Business | Vanity Fair
We’ve Become a Nation of Bubbleheads – Forbes
Michael Burry ”Really Went After Goldman” At A Speech Last Night
Before Crisis, Wall Street Knew

Mortgage crisis seer Michael Burry bets on farms – SFGate

Michael Burry: Subprime Short-Seller No. 1 – NYTimes.com

The Outsiders Who Foresaw The Subprime Crisis : NPR

2007

Paulson Subprime Plan Offers Little Aid, Analysts Say

Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s come under fire – Aug. 20, 2007

2006

Overwhelming yes for Gold Fields’ Bolivar bid

Gold Fields Exaggerated Venezuela Risk, Scion Says (Update2)…

2005

Gold Fields’ Bid for Bolivar Hits a Speed Bump – Precious…

Thousands of old posts of Michael Burry can be found here-(register for the site and do a search, its free and worth it)-http://www.siliconinvestor.com/subject.aspx?subjectid=10036&LastNum=10&NumMsgs=10)

VIDEOS

1. Michael Burry Profiled: Bloomberg Risk Takers – Video – Bloomberg
www.bloomberg.com/video/72756316/

2. Michael Burry on the Financial Crisis
http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2011/04/video-burry-cls/

3. Burry Interview Excerpt on Investment Strategy
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/62706798/

4. Burry Says No One’s Accepting Blame for Financial Crisis
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/62703584/

5. Michael Burry Interview Excerpt on Derivatives, Goldman
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/62710136/

6. Extra: Wall Street Misfit
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6298040n&tag=segementExtraScroller;housing

MORE VIDEOS

HIS QUOTES

I prefer to look at specific investments within the inefficient parts of the market.
The bulk of opportunities remain in undervalued, smaller, more illiquid situations that often represent average or slightly above-average businesses
fully aware that wonderful businesses make wonderful investments only at wonderful prices, I will continue to seek out the bargains amid the refuse.
It is likely, however, that the investors in the habit of overturning the most stones will find the most success.
My firm opinion is that the best hedge is buying an appropriately safe and cheap stock.
It is a tenet of my investment style that, on the subject of common stock investment, maximizing the upside means first and foremost minimizing the downside
Lost dollars are simply harder to replace than gained dollars are to lose.
The Fund maintains a high degree of concentration - typically 15-25 stocks, or even less. Some or all of these stocks may be relatively illiquid.
Volatility does not determine risk.
I certainly view volatility as my friend volatility is on sale because 99% of the institutions out there are doing their best to avoid it
In essence, the stock market represents three separate categories of business. They are, adjusted for inflation, those with shrinking intrinsic value, those with approximately stable intrinsic value, and those with steadily growing intrinsic value. The preference, always, would be to buy a long-term franchise at a substantial discount from growing intrinsic value.
Ick investing means taking a special analytical interest in stocks that inspire a first reaction of “ick.” I tend to become interested in stocks that by their very names or circumstances inspire unwillingness – and an “ick” accompanied by a wrinkle of the nose on the part of most investors to delve any further.
One hedges when one is unsure. I do not seek out investments of which I am unsure.
I will always choose the dollar bill carrying a wildly fluctuating discount rather than the dollar bill selling for a quite stable premium.
With all seriousness, a 2,500-share sell when no one is looking could torpedo the apparent market value of several of the Fund’s holdings.