Michael Burry, known for calling the subprime mortgage crisis, piled into a physical gold trust in the first quarter, making it his biggest bet, according to a new regulatory filing. Burry, who now manages hedge fund Scion Asset Management, bought more than 440,000 units of the Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS), worth more than $10 million in the first quarter. The closed-end fund holds its assets in physical gold bullion. The gold trust is trading at a discount to its net asset value. PHYS sells at a 1.67% discount to its net asset value compared with its 52-week average discount of 1.57%, according to a service run by Nuveen . The widest discount PHYS has traded at over the past 52 weeks is 2.52%. It’s never traded at a premium to NAV in the past year. Gold prices recently reached a series of new highs on the back of reaccelerating inflation and intensifying geopolitical risk. U.S. gold futures topped $2,400 at their peak last month, The famed investor also hiked his bets on Chinese e-commerce players JD.com and Alibaba last quarter. His top holdings also included HCA Healthcare , Citigroup and Block at the end of March. Burry shot to fame by betting against mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 global financial crisis. Burry was depicted in Michael Lewis’ book ” The Big Short ” and the subsequent Oscar-winning movie of the same name. Money managers with more than $100 million in assets are required to disclose long positions with the Securities and Exchange Commission 45 days after a quarter ends. Active traders such as Burry could have already changed their positions by the time filings come out.
