Michael Burry: Hedge fund honcho who minted millions in 2008 crisis did it again during Covid-19 pandemic
Burry's play reportedly sparked one of the most out-of-control trades in financial history, resulting in billions of dollars in paper profits for some investors, including few amateur speculators
meaww.com
Appears that Michael Burry was behind the GameStop debacle.
He bought up over 5% stake in the company. Forced the company to buyback it's shares using around 200 million dollars. The buyback caused shorted stock to go over 100% of available stocks in the market.
Then he created the news cycle that lead to threads about undervalued stock and hedge funds shorting over 100% of the company's stock. Buying the stocks at $2-4 per share, he made perhaps billions in the trades.
Burry was the one who also led to the issuance of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on Mortgage Backed Securities. He noticed the problems with MBS and recognized that at some point, they would begin to fail and default. Convinced Deutsche Bank to issue CDS in 2005 then all the banks started doing it thinking it was easy money to be made.
It was easy money, at least for Burry, when the loans began to fail. Reportedly made over $1b on CDS.