| Not checkable |
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2025 |
Those who can refinance will. Our focus is on those who cannot.
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2025 |
volatility does not determine risk.
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2025 |
I remain optimistic that the outcome will be satisfactory.
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2025 |
White Mountains is an extraordinary company managed in a manner to warm a shareholder’s heart.
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2025 |
A rapid rise in oil prices above $40 has a reasonable fundamental basis, and would be almost a universal surprise.
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2025 |
I actually welcome this development.
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2025 |
As the Fund owns a more concentrated portfolio of deeply undervalued stocks affected by a variety of special situations, macro trends…
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2025 |
As I have noted in previous letters, I will always choose the dollar bill carrying a wildly fluctuating discount rather than the dollar…
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2025 |
I do not and will not simply seek to hedge the long portion of the Fund’s portfolio with a basket of short positions, or for that matter…
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
Oil has been in a nominal trading range for so long that the market apparently feels prices cannot escape above $40/barrel.
Not checkable · 2025 |
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| Own records only |
Factual |
2025 |
Scion COO and General Counsel Steve Druskin and CFO Zaeed Kalsheker led a top-to-bottom reorganization of Scion's back office over the past year.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
It is my opinion that the most stable, cost-effective, and eternal alternative to the Fund is the S&P 500 Index, and hence this index…
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2025 |
At the end of the day, the credit crunch hurts the United States more than any other country.
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2025 |
I fully expect and recommend that members of this investment vehicle judge my performance over a period of five years or greater, not five…
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2025 |
If this is not a peak in a dramatic debt-fueled economic boom, well, it certainly looks like one.
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2025 |
I will retain the right to allow investments at other times, but only as a rare exception in the face of overwhelming justification.
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2025 |
Despite our mark-to-market losses, we’re short the mortgage portfolio everyone would want if they knew what they were doing.
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2025 |
On a percentage basis – and it is on this basis that we must evaluate each and every decision – lost dollars are simply harder to replace…
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| Mostly true |
Factual |
2025 |
Blue Ocean Re was set up in late 2005 to take advantage of what Burry called an extraordinary pricing ability in the retrocessional reinsurance space.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
When evaluating US companies, conservative investors ought to assume that if the IRS can tax something, then it is a real profit.
Not checkable · 2025 |
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| Mostly true |
Factual |
2025 |
Burry's main contact at Goldman Sachs was Veronica, a front-end salesperson.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not researched |
Factual |
2025 |
Michael Burry did an internal medicine internship at the University of Tennessee hospital and two years of residency at Stanford hospital.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
Our experience with equity index puts has not been a good one, especially now that indices are surpassing or approaching all-time highs.
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2025 |
Please contact Scion’s Investor Relations Manager Sandy Hawkins with any questions you may have regarding your investment.
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2025 |
The tragic events of September 11th have caused performance during this third quarter of 2001 to be particularly irrelevant to the task of…
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2025 |
I short a stock for the Fund when there is some temporary, manipulated, or misunderstood phenomenon that has caused the stock to rise to an…
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2025 |
Whether relying on a checklist or on a service that supplies potential short-selling ideas, managers new to the practice have potentially…
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2025 |
Conservatism rules the day here at Scion.
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2025 |
For nearly all, it is not a question of ethics but rather one of fiduciary duty or job preservation.
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2025 |
Calibrating the more positive outcomes will become easier as 2007 progresses.
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2025 |
There remains substantial upside should one or more of the companies underlying our credit shorts encounter more distress or actually…
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
In June, after the Bear funds failed, the middle of June was a time that really stood out.
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| Not researched |
Factual |
2025 |
Burry said that, when discussing communication problems with counterparties, he thought Morgan Stanley, Goldman and Bank of America had given what he viewed as "dog ate my homework" excuses, such as power failures and systems failures.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
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2025 |
The significant implication here is that shareholders cannot count on these sorts of companies for proper corporate governance.
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2025 |
Perhaps we were too worried about appearances, and we should have done differently.
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2025 |
Although we hold offthe-run single name corporate credit default swaps that I do not find to be very liquid, there is a bona fide and…
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| Unresolvable |
Factual |
2025 |
Burry said "we" had some communication difficulties with "the counterparties" over "that summer", and said he did not recall the specific dates.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
Shorts on 2005 tranches are both more likely to pay off and closer to paying off than 2006 deals.
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| Unresolvable |
Factual |
2025 |
The total current loan balance of the deal as of the date discussed was $429,028,969.
Factual · 2025 |
Economics and markets |
| Unresolvable |
Prediction |
2025 |
In a coldly calculating rather than speculative market, stocks of companies governed with little respect for shareholders will suffer.
Prediction · 2025 |
Economics and markets |
| Not checkable |
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2025 |
I certainly have proven no ability to pick tops, and I do not anticipate attempting such a feat in the future.
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2025 |
a quarterly compartmentalization of returns is no better than a monthly, weekly, or daily division of returns.
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2025 |
To be clear, were it not for the quality and integrity of the individuals associated with both parties, I would never have entered into…
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2025 |
For this reason, while I do not believe history provides a precise blueprint for the future, I also do not believe that those who blithely…
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2025 |
I generally feel people follow the incentives before them.
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
I failed to clearly re-establish the tax policy of the Fund after it was subtly suggested that paying taxes was something to avoid.
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
I certainly view volatility as my friend – and hence your friend.
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| Not researched |
Factual |
2025 |
Banks told Scion that daily collateral valuation was unusual.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Own records only |
Factual |
2025 |
Michael Burry keeps the vast majority of his net worth invested in the Scion Value Fund.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
Be assured that I eat my own cooking.
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
While I will continue to attempt to raise new capital, it will not be my policy to compromise the Fund’s current policies to do so.
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2025 |
My job, as manager and fellow owner, is to allocate the vehicle’s capital to produce the highest absolute return on invested capital…
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2025 |
There does not exist on Wall Street such a creature that will forgo an opportunity to act in its self-interest.
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2025 |
I have been wary of the conflicts of interest that would arise
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2025 |
I would say that to the extent fundamentals-be-damned speculators are involved, they are in for the luckiest ride of their lives
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
Never would I do such a thing.
Not checkable · 2025 |
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| Not researched |
Factual |
2025 |
Burry said he dealt with the training (as transcribed), selection and research, while back-office staff dealt with the collateral and interpreting the daily marks.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not researched |
Factual |
2025 |
Scion's CDS positions first started to go well in February 2007.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
Unless one can find certainty in facts that support a case for undervaluation within this paradigm, there is no need to take a position.
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
found the methodologies to be frankly inconsistent.
Not checkable · 2025 |
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
I have generally responded that it is neither my policy nor my interest to attempt to predict broad stock market levels to any degree of…
Not checkable · 2025 |
|
| Own records only |
Prediction |
2025 |
Burry said he expected additional distributions of capital and profits from the Blue Ocean Re investment during the remainder of the year of the letter.
Prediction · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
Credit support is therefore a key feature worthy of more attention.
Not checkable · 2025 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
While I do not necessarily expect the after-effects of our more recent bubble to approach in any general manner the absolute valuation…
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
The real opportunities in any market of common stocks will occur when it is the investors who carry the pessimism.
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
Moreover, minimizing this correlation does not require a portfolio of more than fifteen or so stocks.
Not checkable · 2025 |
|
| Resolved true |
Factual |
2025 |
Scion did not pay $10,000,000 for the credit default swap; that was only its notional value.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Own records only |
Factual |
2025 |
At the start of the second quarter, Scion Qualified Value Fund held $612 million in assets under management and Scion Value Fund held $133 million.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
I do so to help maximize the returns earned by the Fund.
Not checkable · 2025 |
|
| Not researched |
Factual |
2025 |
Scion negotiated its master agreements with the various banks between 2003 and 2005.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
Because expenses are relatively fixed, higher amounts of assets dilute the expense ratio.
Not checkable · 2025 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
One must therefore take some pride in such a universal lack of appeal.
Not checkable · 2025 |
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
Adobe Systems, for instance, is widely regarded as a good company with a decent franchise.
Not checkable · 2025 |
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| Not checkable |
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2025 |
However, I am not at all convinced that the opinions above bear significantly on the investment process that I employ on behalf of the Fund.
Not checkable · 2025 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
2025 |
However, I will not let the prospect of taxes on gains prevent the achievement of those gains.
Not checkable · 2025 |
|
| Unresolvable |
Factual |
2025 |
Michael Burry said he remembers the responses he got when he claimed in 1999 that it was a bubble.
Factual · 2025 |
Their own work or organisation |
| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
all the debt and all the money being printed is very much a real bill, a real tax that has not yet come due, except with respect to savers…
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
We must remember that entire societies can and often do follow the wrong path for a very long time, and that there is nothing wrong with…
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
We need better leaders, but very frankly, this need is unlikely to be met.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
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13 Apr 2011 |
A problem cannot be solved if it can never be acknowledged.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
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13 Apr 2011 |
I had not met one person in finance who could crack the top 50 I met in medicine.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
Taxes need to be raised, loopholes need to be shut, spending needs to be cut if we are to have any hope of returning to a stable base.
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
All that said, I might suggest opening a retail banking account in Canada.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
This is in fact a Pyrrhic gamble, as we continue to debase our currency.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
I came to see the Fed’s actions late in ‘98 as a significant contributor to the ensuing blow‐off top of the dot com and telecom bubble in…
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
Certainly homeownership should not be a policy of the US government, and the banking system needs substantial reform and even bank breakups.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
Lenders, by implementing a mortgage feature they had long avoided, showed, for all to see, they were interested in growth more than they…
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
He was anything but an impotent tool, and he had a running start unlike any other.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
Glass Steagal needs a second run in a strong form.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
The entire economy depended on home price appreciation – consumer spending, jobs, securities markets, all of it.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
I disagreed. I saw absolutely no chance of home prices going sideways, or stabilizing for any significant length of time.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
In my view, an historic opportunity was lost.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
That was the secret sauce of the Doomsday Machine.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
America had instead chosen its poison as the cure, and the second greatest generation would never be born.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
Importantly, the toxic twins of a fiat currency and an activist Fed remain firmly entrenched, even more so with the financial reforms…
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
This would not be a good thing, no matter what the Street’s risk model said.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
Tragically for all of us, the Fed had the authority to block any lending practices it deemed deserving of such treatment, but it had…
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
it is not a time for the responsible individual to tolerate any level of blind faith directed toward any man or woman.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
Soon, I would see financial Armageddon looming, with housing as the trigger point.
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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| Not checkable |
Not checkable |
13 Apr 2011 |
As I surveyed the national trends in housing, I wondered whether common sense ought rule against the application of precedent to the…
Not checkable · 13 Apr 2011 |
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