Michael Burry is an American investor, hedge fund manager and one of the most iconic figures in modern financial history. Best known as the founder of Scion Capital and the first major investor to correctly predict the 2007 to 2010 subprime mortgage crisis, Burry rose to global recognition for his independent thinking, rigorous analysis and willingness to defy market consensus. His story was later immortalised in Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short and the Oscar-winning film adaptation, where he was portrayed by Christian Bale.
Burry began his career academically, studying economics and pre-medical sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, before earning his MD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1997. Although trained as a physician, he developed a passion for investing, documenting his early value investing successes on message boards such as Silicon Investor beginning in 1996. His investment philosophy is deeply rooted in Benjamin Graham and David Dodd’s Security Analysis and the concept of “margin of safety,” which continues to underpin his approach today.
In 2000, Burry founded Scion Capital, naming it after one of his favourite novels, The Scions of Shannara. From 2003 onward, he became convinced that the real estate market was dangerously overleveraged and predicted the collapse of mortgage-backed securities years before it occurred. He worked closely with Wall Street banks to structure early credit default swaps, creating one of the most profitable trades in financial history. After closing Scion Capital in 2008, he later returned to the industry with Scion Asset Management in 2013.
Today, Burry remains a closely followed and often contrarian market thinker. He has taken high-profile short positions, including early bets against tech valuations, and in 2025, his 13F filings revealed short positions in Nvidia and Palantir through put options. He recently launched the newsletter Cassandra Unchained, continuing his tradition of warning against market excesses and identifying bubbles before the crowd.
