Latest news with #BigShort
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why 'Big Short' investor Steve Eisman thinks the Israel-Iran conflict is good news for markets
The Israel-Iran conflict could be a positive for the stock market, Steve Eisman says. "The Big Short" investor said it would be a "disaster" if Iran developed and shared nuclear weapons. Eisman thinks markets are now focusing on how the conflict is impeding nuclear proliferation. Famed investor Steve Eisman said sees a silver lining to the conflict between Israel and Iran, which has rattled markets as it stretches into its fifth day on Tuesday. The investor, best-known for his bet against the US housing market preceding the 2008 financial crisis, said he believed developments unfolding between the two nations were potentially "extremely positive" for the stock market and the world. That's because he believes that, had there been no conflict between Israel and Iran this month, Iran would be closer to developing a nuclear weapon, Eisman said. That could result in other countries in the region gaining access to nuclear weaponry or building up nuclear weapons in response, which would have been a "disaster," he told CNBC on Tuesday. "And unfortunately Iran is run by, the only way you can call it is a death cult," Eisman said. "So, getting rid of a death cult anywhere on planet earth, I think, is a very positive thing, especially when that death cult is close to getting nuclear weapons." Eisman said he believed markets have started to digest the positive implications of the conflict. US stocks sank and oil prices spiked shortly after Israel first attacked Iran, but the market reaction has been more muted since, despite tensions creeping higher. US stocks were relatively flat on Tuesday, despite President Donald Trump leaving the G7 summit early to deal with conflict in the Middle East and stating on Truth Social that everyone "should immediately evacuate Tehran." "Now it's focused on it," he said of the latest market reaction to recent developments. "I think it's potentially unbelievably positive." Eisman's comments on conflicts in the Middle East have previously drawn criticism. Last year, Eisman was placed on leave from Neuberger Berman after he posted on X that the world was "celebrating" the death toll in Gaza. Eisman later wrote that the post was a "mistake" and deleted his X account. Eisman added that while the Israel-Iran conflict could ultimately be a positive for markets, the potential for a wider trade war from Trump's tariffs is one big thing he's worried about. "If we reach deals with all these countries and there's no trade war, I'm very positive on the US economy long-term, and I would be very positive on the market. If there's a trade war, chances are we go into a global recession," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why 'Big Short' investor Steve Eisman thinks the Israel-Iran conflict is good news for markets
The Israel-Iran conflict could be a positive for the stock market, Steve Eisman says. "The Big Short" investor said it would be a "disaster" if Iran developed and shared nuclear weapons. Eisman thinks markets are now focusing on how the conflict is impeding nuclear proliferation. Famed investor Steve Eisman said sees a silver lining to the conflict between Israel and Iran, which has rattled markets as it stretches into its fifth day on Tuesday. The investor, best-known for his bet against the US housing market preceding the 2008 financial crisis, said he believed developments unfolding between the two nations were potentially "extremely positive" for the stock market and the world. That's because he believes that, had there been no conflict between Israel and Iran this month, Iran would be closer to developing a nuclear weapon, Eisman said. That could result in other countries in the region gaining access to nuclear weaponry or building up nuclear weapons in response, which would have been a "disaster," he told CNBC on Tuesday. "And unfortunately Iran is run by, the only way you can call it is a death cult," Eisman said. "So, getting rid of a death cult anywhere on planet earth, I think, is a very positive thing, especially when that death cult is close to getting nuclear weapons." Eisman said he believed markets have started to digest the positive implications of the conflict. US stocks sank and oil prices spiked shortly after Israel first attacked Iran, but the market reaction has been more muted since, despite tensions creeping higher. US stocks were relatively flat on Tuesday, despite President Donald Trump leaving the G7 summit early to deal with conflict in the Middle East and stating on Truth Social that everyone "should immediately evacuate Tehran." "Now it's focused on it," he said of the latest market reaction to recent developments. "I think it's potentially unbelievably positive." Eisman's comments on conflicts in the Middle East have previously drawn criticism. Last year, Eisman was placed on leave from Neuberger Berman after he posted on X that the world was "celebrating" the death toll in Gaza. Eisman later wrote that the post was a "mistake" and deleted his X account. Eisman added that while the Israel-Iran conflict could ultimately be a positive for markets, the potential for a wider trade war from Trump's tariffs is one big thing he's worried about. "If we reach deals with all these countries and there's no trade war, I'm very positive on the US economy long-term, and I would be very positive on the market. If there's a trade war, chances are we go into a global recession," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
7 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
A couple started buying real estate to free themselves from 80-hour workweeks. After scaling to more than 100 units, they work part-time and travel half the year.
At the height of their medical careers, Letizia Alto and Kenji Asakura had to block off time on their calendars if they wanted to see each other. "We would schedule out a month in advance, days that we could spend together because it was so busy," Alto told Business Insider. "And this was without us having kids together." They were both working more than full-time as hospitalists, logging 80-hour weeks. When they took a step back and considered what they wanted their future to look like, the grueling workweeks didn't fit in. "Kenji asked me, 'What do you really want for your life? Presume there are no limits. What would you want to do?'" recalled Alto. Her answer was specific: She wanted to spend months out of the year in Italy, producing olive oil and hosting friends. "And that was obviously very different than the path we were on." It was an interesting thought experiment that ultimately shifted their mindset. About six months later, while traveling in a camper van through New Zealand on their honeymoon, they passed the nights reading what Alto had recently downloaded to her Kindle — " Rich Dad Poor Dad" — and resonated with some of the author's core themes. "It was really powerful. We were like, 'Oh, my gosh, this is it: We're employees, we trade our time for money, we're never going to be able to be in Italy for three months at a time because we're always going to have to be working,'" said Alto. "This future that I had kind of visualized six months before didn't work. The only way it works is if we have another source of income, outside medicine, that can replace part of our salaries so that we can have the freedom to take time off." The couple decided right then and there that when they returned home to Seattle, they'd start investing in real estate. Putting off a primary residence in order to buy investment properties Creating additional income by investing in real estate made sense for Alto and Asakura for a few reasons. One, Asakura already had experience. His parents were investors and, as a kid, "I remember going to rental properties, picking up checks, seeing my dad talk to tenants, things like that," he said. "I grew up with real estate, and pretty much as soon as I had money, I started investing." That came after medical school, when he worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company for a few years before completing his residency. Using savings from his salaried job, he and a friend started building a joint portfolio in the early 2000s and, like most property investors at the time, made a lot of money. "Real estate just appreciated like crazy, all the way up to around 2006, 2007, when things started slowing down," said Asakura, who was mainly buying and flipping land. "I'd buy a piece of land for like $100,000 and, six months later, I would sell it for $300,000. It was that crazy. It was just like the Big Short." When the recession hit, "my properties didn't cash flow, and I got stuck with a lot of mortgages, insurance payments, and property taxes. I was pretty much upside down on my properties," he said. The experience didn't deter him from re-entering the real estate world years later alongside Alto. "I wasn't scared. If anything, I had confidence just because we had a plan. Mistakes are an expensive education, but it's the best education." In addition to Asakura's experience, the couple had the capital to invest in property. They'd planned to buy a primary home together and had already set aside cash for the down payment. But, after returning from the New Zealand trip in early 2015, they asked their agent to switch gears and help them find a rental property. They had a new, clear vision. "We wrote down our portfolio goal," said Alto. "We were like, we're going to own this many units and we're going to make this much cash flow." Buying and holding cash-flowing properties When Alto and Asakura started purchasing investment properties, their strategy revolved around two main principles: cash flow and forced appreciation. They use a cash-on-cash calculator that allows them to input metrics such as purchase price, expenses, and projected rents to predict a property's performance. They're less interested in how it's performing under the current owner. "What's really more important is knowing how it's going to run after you're done with it," said Alto. "We regularly buy properties that are negative or have really low cash-on-cash returns with the current owners. What we see is the potential for what it can become." They learned from Asakura's early investing days to never rely on market appreciation. They'd rather force appreciation on the property through improvements and upgrades, which isn't dissimilar to a flip, he said: "The difference is, a flipper sells, whereas we're holding. The other difference is that a flipper typically buys a property that'll never cash flow, whereas we're buying properties that are good flip projects but also cash flow." In 2015, using their down payment savings, they bought two duplexes outside Seattle, filled the units with tenants, and started generating rental income. They continued buying small, undervalued multi-family properties, used tax strategies to shield their income from taxes, and rolled their rental income, savings, and tax refunds into more properties. By 2017, they said they were bringing in over six figures of rental cash flow. The next year, they started their blog, Semi-Retired MD, which would evolve into an online course specifically geared at doctors and high-income earners looking to invest in real estate. By 2021, they owned over 150 personal units and over 400 syndicated doors. BI confirmed their property ownership, which includes multi-family properties, commercial properties, and a handful of syndication deals, by reviewing deeds and operating agreements. The couple were tenants themselves up until 2022, when they moved to Puerto Rico and bought their first primary residence together. They were never chasing big cash flow goals to sit on the beach all day. "Our goal was to buy ourselves time-freedom and to continue to contribute to the world and have purpose," said Alto, who worked in the hospital up until 2020 and now spends a chunk of her days running Semi-Retired MD. Asakura, who scaled back to part-time in the hospital in 2015 to focus on real estate, spends his days managing their portfolio, and they both have more time to dedicate to each other and their kids. "I think about what my life could have been right now: Driving to work, spending 12 hours away, and coming home late at night when the kids are asleep," said Asakura. "That's not how our lives are." Alto added, "We have our kids homeschooled. We travel six months a year as a family. We hang out with our kids in the mornings, we see them for lunch, and we see them for dinner every night. We never would have had any of that freedom."
Globe and Mail
19-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
After Nearly Dumping His Entire Portfolio and Buying Puts on Nvidia, Did Famed Investor Michael Burry Just Pull Off Another "Big Short?" It Certainly Looks That Way.
If you've seen the movie The Big Short, which is based on the novel by Michael Lewis and features acclaimed actors Steve Carrell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Jeremy Strong, then you probably know who Michael Burry is. The former Stanford neurology resident rose to prominence while posting stock ideas online during the early days of the internet. His ideas were so good that he eventually left the medical field to launch his own fund. Prior to the Great Recession, Burry correctly bet against the housing market, making hundreds of millions in profits for his fund, Scion Capital. Now, Burry runs another fund called Scion Asset Management, which happened to sell nearly all of its stocks in the first quarter, while also buying put options. Did Burry just pull off another "big short" trade? It certainly looks that way. Burry timed the tariff-induced sell-off perfectly Burry never runs too large of a portfolio, typically holding about a dozen stocks, plus or minus a few. In the first quarter, he sold nearly all of his holdings. He had been quite bullish on China, owning large Chinese stocks like Alibaba, Baidu, and PDD Holdings. But after selling these stocks, he also purchased put options on these names. Put options are similar to call options but in the opposite direction, essentially betting that a stock price will decline. Burry also purchased put options on Nvidia. Now, keep in mind that the 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission only shows us Scion's positions at the close of trading on March 31. We have no idea at what point during the first quarter Burry sold or at what price. However, it's quite possible that Burry saw rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China and decided to get ahead of a potential marketwide sell-off caused by tariffs. If this was the case, then Burry pulled off another "big short" trade and timed it perfectly because the market absolutely collapsed in early April after President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day," falling nearly 20% from highs made in February. Nvidia, at one point this year, traded 30% lower and was down much more from highs made during the year. Nvidia not only got hit by the trade war but also after the Trump administration placed export restrictions on certain semiconductor chips to China. Nvidia does a substantial amount of business in China, but the stock has recovered a lot since the U.S. and China announced a 90-day pause on higher tariff rates against one another. NVDA data by YCharts. Interestingly, Burry's lone remaining long position is the multinational cosmetics company Estée Lauder, which is down over 50% in the last year (as of May 16). Scion actually doubled its position in the company in the first quarter. It's not uncommon for Burry to take long positions in deep-value stocks like he did with GameStop right before the meme stock blasted into orbit in what turned into an epic retail trading frenzy. Is Burry going long-term bear? We really won't know the answer to this question until we see Scion's 13F for the current quarter sometime in July. However, it's quite possible that Burry was only short-term bearish and saw the trade war coming. Burry has done this before. In the second quarter of 2022, right after the Federal Reserve began its intense interest rate hiking campaign, Scion also sold all of its stocks except one. By the third quarter, Scion had begun accumulating stocks again. It would, of course, be quite impressive if Burry sold all of his stocks in the first quarter and then bought the dip after the market sold off intensely right before Trump announced a pause on elevated tariff rates. I wouldn't put it past the legendary investor. Burry could also be more long-term bearish, as he studies economic data closely, which indicates a potential slowdown in consumer spending and the overall economy. I think the big takeaway is that we don't quite know how Burry is positioned for the rest of the year just yet in terms of being bearish or bullish. However, it definitely looks like Burry pulled off another "big short" trade. Don't miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $351,127!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $40,106!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $642,582!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join Stock Advisor, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon. See the 3 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025
Globe and Mail
16-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Investor Michael Burry Bets Against Nvidia Stock (NVDA)
Closely followed Investor Michael Burry has bet against leading chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA). Confident Investing Starts Here: Quickly and easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks straight to you inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Burry, who successfully bet against the subprime mortgage market and was profiled by author Michael Lewis in the book 'The Big Short,' has now turned bearish on NVDA stock. According to his latest 13-F regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Burry's investment firm Scion Asset Management opened put calls on Nvidia's stock during this year's first quarter. Puts are bets that a share price will decline over a period of time. Burry's bet appears to have been a successful one as NVDA stock fell 37% from January through the beginning of April. Nvidia's share price has since rebounded and its market capitalization is again above $3 trillion. It is not known if Burry continues to be short Nvidia stock or if he has ended the trade. The 13-F forms are backward looking and show the moves of investors in the previous quarter. The SEC requires all investment managers that hold over $100 million in securities to disclose their positions in quarterly filings known as 13-Fs. Bearish on China Nvidia was not the only stock that Michael Burry shorted during Q1 of this year. The well-known investor also turned bearish on Chinese stocks during the quarter, buying bearish puts on shares of Chinese stocks which he had previously been accumulating. The Chinese stocks that Burry shorted include Alibaba (BABA), Baidu (BIDU), and (JD), three of China's best known and well-regarded technology firms. The only long position remaining in Burry's concentrated portfolio is Estee Lauder Cos. (EL). The investor sold all his other stocks. Is NVDA Stock a Buy? The stock of Nvidia has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 40 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 34 Buy, five Hold, and one Sell recommendations assigned in the last three months. The average NVDA price target of $164.51 implies 22.01% upside from current levels.
