Michael Burry, born in 1971 in San Jose, lost an eye to cancer at age two and grew up as a quiet child.
Initially passionate about medicine, he studied it at various universities.
However, by the mid-1990s, he had made a name in finance, sharing his investment views online.
In 2000, Burry left medicine to start Scion Capital, a successful investment fund. He diagnosed himself with Asperger’s, which influenced his deep focus on finance.
By 2004, he managed $600 million. His detailed study of the housing market led him to predict its 2007 collapse.
By exploiting this, he earned close to a billion dollars during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
A proponent of “margin of safety” in investing, he emphasizes buying undervalued assets.
After briefly retiring in 2008, Burry reopened Scion Management in 2013, focusing on gold, tech, farmland and especially water, predicting its future scarcity.
I have made a top list of quotes by Michael Burry.
Best Michael Burry Quotes
“I just really like to find my own ideas.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“If you are going to be a great investor, you have to fit the style to who you are.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“My natural state is an outsider. I’ve always felt outside the group, and I’ve always been analyzing the group.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“People want an authority to tell them how to value things, but they choose this authority not based on facts or results.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“Read every line item until you get it.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“I have always believed that a single talented analyst, working very hard, can cover an amazing amount of the investment landscape, and this belief remains unchallenged in my mind.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“I think a lot of funds get their ideas from Wall Street. I just like to find my own ideas. I read a lot. A lot of news. I just follow my nose. A lot of times it’s a dead end, but sometimes there’s value there.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“I’m not making a bet against a bond. I’m making a bet against a system.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“The late 90s almost forced me to identify myself as a value investor, because I thought what everybody else was doing was insane.” ~ (Michael Burry).
Popular Michael Burry Quotes
“Subprime mortgages, typically defined as those issued to borrowers with low credit scores, make up roughly the riskiest one-third of all mortgages.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“Everything I do in investment is just very different.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“It is ludicrous to believe that asset bubbles can only be recognized in hindsight.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“The borrowers will always be willing to take a great deal for themselves. It’s up to the lenders to show restraint, and when they lose it, watch out.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“My positioning with my investors was always, I need three to five years.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“Early on, people invested in me because of my letters and then, somehow, after they invested, they stopped reading them.” ~ (Michael Burry).
Top Michael Burry Quotes
“I didn’t offer transparency. I provided one quarterly report in letter form. That was all you got. I basically demanded that if you’re going to invest in my fund you need to accept my terms. The terms not being super highs, but just, I’m not going to cater to you.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“I seek individual investments that will allow me to target total portfolio returns of at least 20% annually after fees and expenses on an annual basis over a period of years, not months.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“Lost dollars are simply harder to replace than gained dollars are to lose.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“I try to buy shares of unpopular companies when they look like road kill and sell them when they’ve been polished up a bit.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“I have a job to do. Make money for my clients. Period. But boy it gets morbid when you start making investments that work out extra great if a tragedy occurs.” ~ (Michael Burry).
Famous Michael Burry Quotes
“I started trading stocks, options and futures while I was at UCLA, using my earnings from working summers at the old IBM plant on Cottle Road. I never lost interest in how companies work. It’s fundamental to who I am.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“Investors should own a concentrated portfolio of high-quality businesses that can deliver strong organic growth even if the economy falters.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“There is all this opportunity, but so few active managers looking to take advantage.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“I don’t believe anything unless I understand it inside out. And even if I understand something, it is not uncommon that I disagree with accepted view (even if it’s a Nobel laureate).” ~ (Michael Burry).
“Regardless of what the future holds, intelligent investment in common stocks offer a solid route for a reasonable return on investment going forward.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“I will always choose the dollar bill carrying a wildly fluctuating discount rather than the dollar bill selling for a quite stable premium.” ~ (Michael Burry).
“Sadly, in the highest levels of economic thought in government, questions are not tolerated. It is as if we’re dealing with the binary thinking of a fundamentalist religion.” ~ (Michael Burry).
Here is a video from Michael Burry that you can watch.
So these were the 29 quotes from Michael Burry.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other popular blog posts on the topics of Robert Kiyosaki quotes and Peter Drucker quotes.
