‘Large Brief’ fame Burry says he is not betting towards Tesla

Investor Michael Burry of “The Big Short” fame mentioned he was not betting towards Tesla Inc and that his place was only a commerce, CNBC reported on Friday.

Burry’s Scion Asset Management mentioned in a regulatory submitting in mid-Could it had put choices on 800,100 Tesla shares as of the tip of the primary quarter. Particulars on the strike worth of the places, their worth and whether or not they had been a part of a broader commerce weren’t out there.

Based mostly on Tesla’s closing worth of $667.93 on the finish of the primary quarter, the worth of that many shares would have been about $534 million. The precise worth of the choices place was not identified.

Put choices give buyers the proper to promote shares at a sure worth sooner or later.

Choices analysts mentioned at the moment it was potential the places disclosed within the submitting is likely to be half of a bigger commerce that will curb losses if the put place went towards the fund.

“No, it was a commerce,” Burry was quoted as saying in an e-mail to CNBC on Friday, when requested whether or not he was nonetheless shorting Tesla.

“Media actually inflated the worth of this stuff. I used to be by no means brief tens or a whole lot of thousands and thousands of any of this stuff by means of choices, as was reported. The choices bets had been extraordinarily uneven, and the media was off by orders of magnitude,” Burry informed CNBC.

One of many buyers profiled within the e book “The Large Brief” and the movie of the identical title for betting greater than $1 billion towards the U.S. housing bubble, Burry has beforehand been skeptical of Tesla’s sky-high valuations.

Tesla and Scion Asset Administration didn’t instantly reply to Reuters requests for remark.

Shares in Tesla rose marginally after the bell on Friday.