Scion Capital, Burry’s hedge fund, revealed on Tuesday in a federal filing with the SEC that, as of the end of September, it had closed down “put” positions on the Nasdaq 100 index-tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).
As of the final trading day of the second quarter, such negative wagers totaled over $1.6 billion. The third quarter saw a 3.6% and 3% decline in the indices, respectively.
Due to his actions during the 2008 crisis—a catastrophic downturn that started with the US housing bust—Burry became well-known. As early as 2007, Burry projected that residential real estate values would fall. He went on to employ credit default swaps to short many subprime assets.
He emerged as a major character in Michael Lewis’s book “The Big Short,” published in 2010. Christian Bale then played Burry in the book’s 2015 film version.
According to a new SEC filing, Scion Capital sold 76% of the equities it had reported at the end of the second quarter, significantly reducing its exposure to the stock market in the third quarter.
However, Scion reopened roles at Alibaba (BABA), a Chinese tech behemoth, and JD.com after exiting the businesses in the second quarter.
Additionally, the hedge fund cut off its remaining exposure to New York Community Bank (NYCB), a regional lender. During a turbulent quarter that saw many high-profile bank collapses, Scion wagered more than $23 million on banking equities.
Scion initiated two new positions: 2,500 shares were bet against online travel company Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) and 100,000 shares were shorted of BlackRock’s semiconductor ETF, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX).