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Michael Burry, head of Scion Asset Management and a main character in The Big Short film, based on Michael Lewis’ book of the same name.
Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images
An important investor in
GameStop
calls the recent rise in the stock ‘unnatural, insane and dangerous’.
Investor Michael Burry, Head of Scion Asset Management and a Leading Character in The big short book and film, said in a recently removed post on
Twitter
that he believes there should be legal consequences for what is traded with GameStop. Burry made a significant investment in GameStop in 2019, noting that he is happy for investors who made money after his initial retail investment.
“If I put $ GME on your radar, and you did well, I’m really happy for you,” he wrote in a quickly removed Tweet on Tuesday. “However, what is going on now – there must be legal and regulatory consequences. It is unnatural, insane and dangerous. ”
Burry tells Barron’s in an email that he deleted the message because he marked the wrong SEC enforcement account. After publication, Burry posted the same comment, this time marked with the correct account.
GameStop’s share has risen more than 3,415% over the past twelve months, hitting a wave of retail investors’ enthusiasm and crushing short sellers. Speculative traders targeted the sky-high short interest on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum. It has been a favorite among the crowd for months, and their faith has borne much fruit. This month’s boom was initially kicked off by an announcement that Chewy, co-founder Ryan Cohen, and two former executives of the e-commerce business would join GameStop’s board. Cohen’s RC Ventures owns approximately 13% of the GameStop shares.
In August 2019, when the GameStop shares below were $ 4 per share, Burry announced a 3% stake in the company. Burry thought stocks were undervalued, indicating GameStop’s balance sheet and predicting that the next generation of video game consoles, available by the end of 2020, will still include disk drives, which will increase GameStop’s stake.
According to Burry’s company, more than a million GameStop shares, or about 38% of its stake, sold during the September quarter of 2020. Burry did not immediately return a follow-up email asking if he still owns shares.
Burry’s investment was very successful for those who followed and maintained him last week. GameStop shares closed 92% on Tuesday to $ 147.98, and shares rose higher in trading after hours after a call from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
GameStop representatives did not immediately return a request for comment on the move.
Write to Connor Smith at [email protected]