In the late 2000’s Michael Burry made more than $700 million on his prediction the US housing market crash. Burry became a household name in 2015 when he was portrayed by Christian Bale in the hit movie “The Big Short”.
After staying out of the limelight for a while, Burry predicted earlier this year Tesla (TSLA) was going to suffer a similar fate.
Although he confirmed at the time he had a short position in the automaker, he never disclosed how big that position was, until now.
According to a 13-F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Burry’s firm Scion Management purchased 800,100 put options in the first quarter of 2021. Based on share prices at the time of the purchase, the options contracts were worth $534.4M.
Given Tesla’s performance on the stock market this year, Scion’s investors have made a significant amount of money on Burry’s bet so far. TSLA shares are down nearly 21% since markets opened on January 4, 2021.
Disclaimer: Mike is a shareholder of Tesla, and has no plans to change positions within 72 hours.