The Greatest Pathologist You've Never Heard Of

[LADoc00]

Dr. Michael Burry, Stanford Pathology 1999

Dropped out of training to focus on financial sector full time. Was the very first individual who correctly predicted the collapse of the subprime housing sector. Led creation of the first credit default swaps on subprime lending. Appears in the movie "Big Short" played by Christian Bale aka Dark Knight Batman (the best Batman).

He is also the wealthiest former pathology trainee of all time after his 1.4B short bet paid off in 2008.

Always be yourself..unless you can be Batman or Dr. Burry.

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[coroner]

Great movie. I remember Bale's character was into heavy metal and had a scene playing air drums while crankin' up some Pantera. Wonder if Burry was into that as well...

No idea that he was a former pathology trainee. Inspiring story and I would absolutely do the same if I had some innate talent or visionary foresight that separated me from the rest of the pack. Unfortunately, I'll probably be stuck being a scope monkey for the next 25 years like most of us...

 

[Deucedano]

I thought he was a neurology resident

 

[coroner]

Looks like he switched specialties. Not sure if he finished residency and ever went into practice as it seems he quit medicine to do investing full time. (from Wikipedia)

He went on to earn an M.D. from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and started but did not finish his residency in neurology at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. After medical school, Burry worked as a Stanford Hospital neurology resident, and then a Stanford pathology resident. He then left to start his own hedge fund.

And apparently he might have Ass-burgers syndrome...so typical of our specialty, haha

His son was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and Burry believes he himself has Asperger Syndrome after reading about the disorder.

And out of that $1.4B short he made, it looks like he owed $750m back to investors with his net worth is listed at $300m. Either way, a nice tidy sum...

 

[cmz]

Looks like he switched specialties. Not sure if he finished residency and ever went into practice as it seems he quit medicine to do investing full time. (from Wikipedia)

He went on to earn an M.D. from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and started but did not finish his residency in neurology at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. After medical school, Burry worked as a Stanford Hospital neurology resident, and then a Stanford pathology resident. He then left to start his own hedge fund.

And apparently he might have Ass-burgers syndrome...so typical of our specialty, haha

His son was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and Burry believes he himself has Asperger Syndrome after reading about the disorder.

And out of that $1.4B short he made, it looks like he owed $750m back to investors with his net worth is listed at $300m. Either way, a nice tidy sum...

He was using his own hedge fund's money, so it's OK that he paid back $750M to his investors. The only problem he really had was he bet too early in the game. He was paying a nice tidy sum to cover his shorts for quite some time until the market hit the brakes finally.

 

[AZpath]

He was using his own hedge fund's money, so it's OK that he paid back $750M to his investors. The only problem he really had was he bet too early in the game. He was paying a nice tidy sum to cover his shorts for quite some time until the market hit the brakes finally.

I am sure it is enough $ for him to say "kiss my Ass-burger" 🙂

 

[Ziehl-Neelsen]

I remember him from reading The Big Short years ago. I was always impressed by the huevos on guys like him taking those huge short positions... When my dad was teaching me to invest and we got to shorting securities he used to constantly repeat John Maynard Keynes's reminder that "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent." To this day I've still never opened a naked short position on any type of security. In fact the only situation where I've been sure enough about the eventual failure of a security to short it was Theranos, and in that situation I didn't have access to the private capital that would have allowed me to initiate any kind of position.

Anyway, I think he would have been an interesting pathologist and colleague. I wonder if the single eye would have been a detriment. And I wonder if that "swim against the current" ethos would have been a help or a hindrance on a zebra case when the prevailing opinion of other pathologists went against his own.

 

[LADoc00]

The super intelligent folks way far out on the right hand of the Pareto distribution have a very hard time at places like Stanford because they are so far beyond the faculty, they get resentment instead of mentoring. A guy like this was lucky. I have seen geniuses ground into dust out of pure spite and jealousy many times during my journey through the medical Ivy league's ivory towers.

 

[cmz]

I remember him from reading The Big Short years ago. I was always impressed by the huevos on guys like him taking those huge short positions... When my dad was teaching me to invest and we got to shorting securities he used to constantly repeat John Maynard Keynes's reminder that "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent." To this day I've still never opened a naked short position on any type of security. In fact the only situation where I've been sure enough about the eventual failure of a security to short it was Theranos, and in that situation I didn't have access to the private capital that would have allowed me to initiate any kind of position.

Anyway, I think he would have been an interesting pathologist and colleague. I wonder if the single eye would have been a detriment. And I wonder if that "swim against the current" ethos would have been a help or a hindrance on a zebra case when the prevailing opinion of other pathologists went against his own.

You should have shorted Walgreens and Safeway 🙂