'Big Short' Burry exits bearish bets on Tesla, Google
16/11/2021 24:00
By David Randall
NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Fund manager Michael Burry of
"The Big Short" fame exited bearish bets on Tesla Inc TSLA.O ,
Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O Google, and fund manager Cathie Wood's
ARK Innovation fund ARKK.P last quarter, according to SEC
filings released on Monday.
Burry, whose bets against mortgage securities in the run-up
to the 2008 financial crisis were featured in Michael Lewis'
2010 book "The Big Short," and who now runs $638 million Scion
Asset Management, exited out of put options on slightly more
than 1 million shares of Tesla, a snapshot of his portfolio as
of Sept. 30 showed.
Burry told CNBC in October that he was no longer betting
against Tesla and that his position, which was disclosed earlier
this year, was just a trade. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2RB3JV
Put options give investors the right to sell shares at a
certain price in the future.
Among other positions he exited were put options on 91,900
shares of Alphabet Inc and 1.9 million shares of the iShares 20
year plus Treasury ETF.
Burry also exited a put position on 235,500 shares of ARK
Innovation, the ETF run by star stockpicker Cathie Wood which
was the top-performing U.S. equity fund last year thanks to its
bets on high-growth companies that rallied during the early
stages of the pandemic.
The $20.5 billion fund has slipped this year, however, and
is down 4.8% for the year to date despite the 24.7% rally in the
S&P 500.
It was not clear how Burry's bearish bets on Tesla and the
others fared, given that regulatory filings do not require the
disclosure of options strikes, purchase prices and expiration
dates.
At the same time, Burry added a new long position in
Lockheed Martin Corp LMT.N , oil drilling equipment company Now
Inc DNOW.N and biotech company Scynexis Inc SCYX.O ,
according to SEC filings.
Each company rose in afternoon trading on Thursday, while
the broad S&P 500 index was flat.
(Reporting by David Randall in New York
Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in New York
Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Matthew Lewis)
((David.Randall@thomsonreuters.com; 646-223-6607; Reuters
Messaging: david.randall.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))