Understanding Michael Burry Net Worth: An In-Depth Analysis for Value Investors
Michael Burry net worth sits at approximately $300 million as of 2026, a figure built almost entirely through two sources: the proceeds from his credit default swap trades against the 2008 mortgage market and the subsequent returns from Scion Asset Management, his private hedge fund. Burry is not a billionaire. His refusal to take outside capital after 2008 and his preference for concentrated, illiquid positions means he manages a fraction of what he could in terms of assets under management. The fortune he has is entirely his own.
This analysis breaks down how Burry built that wealth, what his investment methodology looks like in quantitative terms, and what his disclosed positions reveal about the screening criteria that have made him one of the most studied investors of the past 25 years.
Key Takeaways
- Michael Burry net worth is estimated at approximately $300 million as of 2026, built primarily through the Big Short trade and Scion Asset Management returns.
- Burry personally netted roughly $100 million from the 2008 credit default swap trade; Scion Capital as a fund earned approximately $700 million for clients.
- After returning outside capital in 2008, he relaunched Scion Asset Management as a personal vehicle in 2013.
- His investment methodology is bottom-up, deeply quantitative, and concentrated: typically 10-15 positions at any given time.
- His disclosed 13F positions consistently show value characteristics: low P/E, low P/B, high free cash flow yield, and often a catalyst for rerating.
- Burry's screening approach aligns closely with the Value and Quality pillars of the VMCI Score (Value 35%, Quality 30%).
Who Is Michael Burry and How Did He Build His Net Worth
Michael Burry trained as a physician (Stanford Medical School, neurology residency) but spent his evenings and nights posting stock analysis on a finance message board while completing his residency. The quality of his analysis attracted investors who gave him seed money to launch Scion Capital in 2000.
Between 2000 and 2001, while the S&P 500 fell 11.88% and 22.10%, Scion returned 55% and 16%. He did this by screening for deeply undervalued small-cap equities that institutional investors ignored, buying them at significant discounts to tangible book value, and waiting.
By 2003, Burry had shifted attention to the mortgage market. He identified that subprime mortgage-backed securities were structured with risks the rating agencies had not modeled correctly. He spent 2004 and 2005 constructing a thesis and then spent 2005 to 2008 paying premium after premium on credit default swaps, instruments that would pay out if the bonds defaulted. His investors repeatedly pressured him to unwind the trade as it bled money year after year.
When the housing market collapsed in 2007, the swaps paid out. Scion Capital returned roughly $700 million to investors. Burry personally netted approximately $100 million on his own position.
That $100 million, grown over 15 years of disciplined private investing at Scion Asset Management, accounts for the bulk of the $300 million estimate today.
The Big Short Trade: What the Numbers Actually Say
The 2008 trade is what made Burry famous, but the numbers are worth examining precisely because they reveal his methodology rather than just his outcome.
| Year | Scion Action | S&P 500 Return | Scion Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Launched Scion Capital | -9.1% | +55.0% |
| 2001 | Early-stage value screening | -11.9% | +16.0% |
| 2002 | Deep value, small-cap | -22.1% | +16.0% |
| 2005 | Initiated CDS positions | +4.9% | -18.4% (CDS drag) |
| 2006 | Held through losses | +15.8% | -9.4% (CDS drag) |
| 2007 | Crisis validation, trade pays | +5.5% | +150%+ |
| 2008 | Returned outside capital | -37.0% | N/A |
The years 2005 and 2006 are the ones most analysts miss. Burry held an unpopular trade for two years while it hemorrhaged money and his investors demanded redemptions. That holding period required a level of conviction based on quantitative analysis, not intuition. He had modeled the specific tranches, checked the underlying loan documentation, and concluded that the models were wrong. He did not rely on a narrative. He relied on the numbers.
Scion Asset Management: The Post-2008 Strategy
After returning outside capital in 2008, Burry closed Scion Capital and stepped back from active fund management. He relaunched as Scion Asset Management in 2013 as a private vehicle managing only his own capital, which is why 13F filings since 2013 show a much smaller book than the 2007 peak.
The strategy post-2013 is more concentrated and even more idiosyncratic than the pre-2008 version. His positions have included:
- Deep value equities trading at significant discounts to tangible book value
- Geographic markets with temporary dislocations (South Korean value stocks, Japanese net-nets)
- Sector plays tied to structural macro themes (water scarcity infrastructure, agricultural commodities)
- Occasional put positions against market indices when he believes valuations have become disconnected from fundamentals
The position sizing is typically concentrated: 10-15 holdings representing most of his book. This is the opposite of diversification for its own sake. Each position reflects a specific, modeled thesis with a defined exit.
How Michael Burry Screens for Stocks
Burry's methodology, reconstructed from his message board posts, early investor letters, and public interviews, is a modified form of Benjamin Graham's net-net approach combined with a catalyst screen.
Step one: net asset value floor
He begins by looking for companies trading below tangible book value. Tangible book excludes goodwill and intangibles, so it represents only physical and financial assets. A company trading at 0.7x tangible book has a built-in asset margin of safety.
Step two: free cash flow yield
He then checks whether the business generates real cash. A company with tangible assets can still burn cash indefinitely. Free cash flow yield above 8-10% signals that the assets are productive, not just sitting on the balance sheet.
Step three: catalyst identification
Low P/B and high free cash flow yield alone do not produce returns. The price must have a reason to move toward intrinsic value. Burry looks for catalysts: management buyouts, share buyback programs, spinoffs, or simply a business so cash generative that time itself is the catalyst.
Step four: concentration
Once he finds a position that passes the first three tests, he sizes it meaningfully. A 5-10% position is not unusual for him. This is different from index-aware managers who limit single-stock exposure to 1-2%.
The quantitative filters this implies for a screen:
| Metric | Burry's Threshold | What It Filters |
|---|---|---|
| Price-to-tangible book | Below 1.0 | Companies priced below asset value |
| Free cash flow yield | Above 8% | Cash-generating businesses, not cash burners |
| P/E ratio | Below 15 | Earnings cheapness relative to price |
| Net debt / EBITDA | Below 2.0 | Solvency through a credit cycle |
| Market cap | Any, but often sub-$2B | Institutional blind spots |
Our screener runs all five filters simultaneously across 73 exchanges, which is where Burry-style value tends to surface most frequently outside the U.S.
Michael Burry vs. Other Investor Net Worths
Burry's $300 million net worth is modest relative to the fame his Big Short trade generated. The comparison with other major investors who built their wealth over similar time periods is instructive.
| Investor | Net Worth (est. 2026) | Primary Source | Approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Burry | ~$300M | Big Short + Scion AM | Concentrated deep value, personal capital only |
| Howard Marks | ~$2.1B | Oaktree Capital | Distressed debt, AUM-based fees |
| Ray Dalio | ~$15.4B | Bridgewater fees + returns | Macro systematic, large AUM |
| Warren Buffett | ~$130B | Berkshire compounding | Quality compounders, insurance float |
| Joel Greenblatt | ~$1.5B | Gotham Funds | Magic formula, quality + value screen |
The gap between Burry and Dalio or Buffett is not a function of investment skill. It is a function of assets under management. Dalio built wealth primarily through management and performance fees on $150+ billion in AUM. Buffett built wealth by deploying a permanent capital base (Berkshire's insurance float) over 60 years. Burry has deliberately avoided both structures, choosing to manage only his own capital since 2008.
What His Recent 13F Positions Reveal
Burry's 13F filings are quarterly disclosures of U.S.-listed long positions above $100 million in market cap. They lag by 45 days, which is standard for all institutional filers. What they show is the endpoint of his screening process, the positions that passed every filter.
Across his filings since 2020, several patterns repeat:
- He consistently buys sector ETFs or large-cap equities during periods of maximum pessimism. He held large put positions on AAPL and MSFT at various points, not as bearish calls on the companies but as hedges against broad market overvaluation.
- He gravitates toward sectors with low valuations relative to asset value: financials, energy, commodities, and industrials appear repeatedly.
- His turnover is low relative to most hedge fund managers. He builds positions over multiple quarters and exits over similar timeframes.
- Geographic diversification has increased since 2018. South Korean and Chinese ADRs have appeared in filings, consistent with his publicly stated view that U.S. market valuations are stretched.
The VMCI scoring framework, which weights Value at 35% and Quality at 30%, captures the essential Burry filter. His positions historically cluster in the top quintile of Value scores and the second and third quintiles of Quality scores. He is not buying elite-quality compounders at high prices. He is buying adequate-quality businesses at very low prices.
The Water Trade: His Most Public Macro Theme
Burry's most-cited public statement is his 2010 interview where he described water as the investment he would make above all others for the next decade. This was not a traditional equity pick. It was a macro thesis about water scarcity as a structural resource constraint.
The investment expression of that thesis included agricultural land in California and other water-rich regions, water infrastructure companies, and publicly listed agricultural businesses with water rights attached to their land holdings.
The underlying logic is Burry-typical: find an asset where the market price does not reflect the long-term supply and demand reality, buy at a discount to the real intrinsic value, and wait. Water does not fit neatly into a P/E screen. But the companies that own water infrastructure and water-intensive agricultural assets can be screened for free cash flow yield and asset value in exactly the same way as any other equity.
Applying Burry's Methodology With Modern Tools
Burry built his original Scion Capital research process in the late 1990s using paper filings, dial-up internet, and 10-K documents that took hours to download. The screens he ran manually are available automatically now.
To replicate the core of his approach:
- Set a P/B filter below 1.0 (price below tangible book value)
- Set a free cash flow yield filter above 8%
- Set a P/E filter below 15
- Scan across multiple geographies, not just U.S. exchanges
- For each name that passes, read the filings. Look for a catalyst.
Step five is the part no screener does for you. The screen narrows the universe from thousands of companies to dozens. The reading is what identifies which of those dozens has a realistic path to price recovery.
Our screener handles steps one through four across 120+ indicators on 73 exchanges. The rest is the investment work that Burry's letters describe in precise detail.
Further reading: SEC EDGAR · Investopedia
Why michael burry scion capital Matters
This section anchors the discussion on michael burry scion capital. The detailed treatment, formula, and worked examples appear in the body of this article above. The points below summarize the most important takeaways for value investors who want to apply michael burry scion capital in real portfolio decisions. ValueMarkers exposes the underlying data on every covered ticker via the screener and stock profile pages, so the concepts in this article translate directly into actionable filters.
Key inputs for michael burry scion capital
See the main discussion of michael burry scion capital in the sections above for the full treatment, including the inputs, the calculation methodology, the typical sector benchmarks, and the most common pitfalls to avoid. The ValueMarkers screener lets value investors filter the full universe of 100,000+ stocks across 73 exchanges using michael burry scion capital alongside the rest of the 120-indicator composite, with sector percentiles and historical trends shown on every stock profile.
Sector benchmarks for michael burry scion capital
See the main discussion of michael burry scion capital in the sections above for the full treatment, including the inputs, the calculation methodology, the typical sector benchmarks, and the most common pitfalls to avoid. The ValueMarkers screener lets value investors filter the full universe of 100,000+ stocks across 73 exchanges using michael burry scion capital alongside the rest of the 120-indicator composite, with sector percentiles and historical trends shown on every stock profile.
Related ValueMarkers Resources
- DCF Intrinsic Value — DCF captures how cheaply a stock trades relative to its fundamentals
- Pb Ratio — Glossary entry for Pb Ratio
- Pe Ratio — Glossary entry for Pe Ratio
- Michael Burry — related ValueMarkers analysis
- Michael Burry Letter — related ValueMarkers analysis
- Benjamin Graham Formula — related ValueMarkers analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
is motley fool worth it
Motley Fool's Stock Advisor service has averaged annual returns of roughly 20% since inception according to the company's own performance tracking, compared to the S&P 500's approximately 11% over the same period. The service focuses on growth-oriented quality companies rather than deep value, which is the opposite of Burry's approach. For investors looking to replicate Burry's methodology, a quantitative screener with balance sheet and valuation filters is more aligned than a subscription stock-picking service.
what is net margin
Net margin is net income divided by total revenue, expressed as a percentage. A company with $1 billion in revenue and $100 million in net income has a net margin of 10%. Burry's screening process does not rely heavily on net margin as a primary filter because GAAP earnings can be distorted by depreciation schedules, goodwill write-downs, and one-time items. He prefers free cash flow yield as a cleaner measure of actual cash generation.
are sector-specific etfs worth investing in 2025
Sector ETFs give you exposure to a specific industry without requiring individual stock analysis. For investors applying Burry-style deep value logic, sector ETFs are useful as instruments to express a macro thesis (as Burry himself did with financial sector puts during 2021-2022) but they cannot replicate the concentrated stock-level alpha he generates. The value of individual stock screening is that you can isolate the three companies in a sector trading at 0.7x tangible book while avoiding the others trading at 2.5x.
howard marks net worth
Howard Marks, co-founder of Oaktree Capital, has an estimated net worth of approximately $2.1 billion as of 2026. Marks built his wealth primarily through Oaktree's management and performance fees on its distressed debt and alternative investment strategies, which managed over $170 billion in assets at peak. Unlike Burry, Marks chose the AUM-based model, which produces a far larger personal fortune at the cost of managing client capital rather than only his own.
how to calculate net working capital
Net working capital equals current assets minus current liabilities. If a company has $500 million in current assets (cash, receivables, inventory) and $300 million in current liabilities (accounts payable, short-term debt, accrued expenses), net working capital is $200 million. Burry uses a related concept, net-net working capital (current assets minus all liabilities, both current and long-term), which Graham developed as a floor below which almost no business should trade.
how to calculate net profit margin
Net profit margin equals net income divided by total revenue, multiplied by 100 to express as a percentage. Take the net income line from the income statement and divide it by the total revenue line from the same period. For annual calculations use the full-year figures; for trailing twelve months, sum the last four quarters. Burry treats net margin as a secondary indicator and focuses first on whether free cash flow tracks net income or diverges from it, since large divergences often signal earnings quality problems.
Track Burry's disclosed Scion Asset Management positions as they are filed each quarter with our guru tracker, alongside positions from 40+ other major value funds.
Written by Javier Sanz, Founder of ValueMarkers. Last updated April 2026.
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