An investor featured in The Big Short film after he correctly bet on the housing market collapse in 2008 has now predicted a Wall Street crash by the end of this year.
Michael Burry, played by Christian Bale in the 2015 Adam McKay film, has reportedly bet more than $1.6 billion (£1.25 million) on the event happening in 2023.
Security Exchange Commission filings, which were released on Monday, showed he has taken out the wagers against S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 – both representative of the US economy at large.
Mr Burry is reported by CNN to be using more than 90 per cent of his portfolio to bet on the market downturn.
His fund, Scion Asset Management, was shown to have bought large stakes in put options against both stock market indexes. Put options give the right to sell an asset at a particular price.
Mr Burry bought $866 million (£679 million) in put options against a fund that tracks the S&P 500 and $739 million (£580 million) in put options against a fund that tracks the Nasdaq 100.
His bet comes as the S&P 500 has risen 16 per cent and the Nasdaq 100 38 per cent already this year.
Mr Burry became famous for his market movements in the mid 2000s when he bet against the housing market in events that led to the worldwide recession.
It seems like he does not always get it right, however. In January he tweeted: “Sell” to his 1.4 million followers, but then in March he wrote “I was wrong to say sell”.
Christian Bale, with his Best Supporting Actor Oscar gong, played Michael Burry
(PA)
As of August 17, his account now appears to be inactive without any tweets whatsoever – having deleted his activity in a stand against Elon Musk.
The Big Short was initially a best selling book by Michael Lewis before being adapted into the film, which also starred Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt.
Actor Bale said in 2015 of meeting and playing Mr Burry: “He’s a man who knows himself incredibly well, and has a brain unlike any brain I’ve ever come across in my life, and who has not only this great understanding and love of numbers and feeling for numbers, but incredible emotion for the consequences.
“He completely understood what was happening here. Viewed himself not as a hero in the slightest.”
