Hedge fund manager Michael Burry, famed for his winning wagers against the US housing market ahead of the 2008 global financial crisis as depicted in the movie ‘The Big Short’, added a bearish options position on semiconductors in Q3, according to a report by Reuters.
The report cites regulatory filings made this week as revealing the new position taken by Burry’s Scion Asset Management as well as a reduction in exposure to the sector by several other investors.
According to the filings, Scion’s biggest new position in the quarter was in bearish options on an exchange-traded fund focused on semiconductors, with the fund acquiring put options with a notional value of $47.4m against the iShares Semiconductor ETF.
Scion also closed out bearish options against the broad S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 Index, the filings showed.
Soros Fund Management, the asset manager for billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, and Man Group, the world’s largest listed hedge fund, were among the other investors to change their positions in the semiconductor sector, with the former selling its 10,000 shares in Nvidia and adding 80,000 shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), and the latter selling 1.1 million shares in Nvidia. Renaissance Technologies LLC meanwhile, sold its entire stake in the company, although Tiger Global Management and Eisler Capital, added to their Nvidia stakes.
