Today is the deadline for institutional investors to file their 13F positions as of Sept. 30. Quarter after quarter, retail investors have focused on one fund in particular: Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management.
Burry’s largest position is now puts against 100,000 shares of the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX). This entire position was acquired sometime during the third quarter and now accounts for a significant 47.86% of his 13F portfolio.
In total, Burry’s 13F assets under management (AUM) clocks in at $98.97 million, while a Form ADV filed in March showed total AUM of $237.97 million.
Michael Burry Bets Against Semiconductor Stocks
As the name suggests, SOXX is an ETF composed of semiconductor stocks. The ETF consists of 30 stocks, with Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) carrying the largest weight of 9.17%. That’s followed by Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) with weights of 8.51% and 8.17%, respectively.
It’s unclear when exactly during the third quarter Burry took on this position. Depending on the timing, Burry could already be sitting on a loss, as SOXX increased by about 6.5% from Oct. 2 to today. Semiconductor stocks have enjoyed impressive returns this year on the heels of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. NVDA stock in particular is up by nearly 250% year-to-date (YTD).
Also notable is that Burry closed his short positions against the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT:SPY) and the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ). As of Q2, Burry’s largest position was puts against 2 million shares of SPY, followed by puts against 2 million shares of QQQ. From June 30 to the end of September, SPY fell by about 3.5% while QQQ fell by about 3%. Burry could have offloaded his position anytime between those two dates, so its uncertain whether his trade was profitable or not.
Investors should note that Scion is a fund with an extremely high turnover rate and low holding period. As a result, investors with a long holding period are unlikely to gain actionable insights from the fund’s holdings.
According to WhaleWisdom, Scion’s turnover rate is 230.77%, while its average holding period is just 1.15 quarters. For stocks in Scion’s top 10 positions, the average holding period is just 0.1 quarters.
On the date of publication, Eddie Pan held a long position in AMD and NVDA. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
