'Big Short' Michael Burry admits he was 'wrong to say sell' after the Nasdaq 100 entered a bull market

Dr. Michael Burry
"Big Short" Michael Burry is known for his dire market warnings. Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

  • Michael Burry tweeted Thursday he was "wrong to say sell" on January 31.
  • He even congratulated the dip-buying investors. 
  • Nasdaq 100 entered a bull market on Wednesday after gaining 20% from its December 28 closing low.
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Michael Burry — who issued a dire warning to investors by simply tweeting the word "Sell" in January — just admitted he was wrong.

The "Big Short" investor, who is the founder of Scion Asset Management, spooked the market with his one-word tweet on January 31. At the time, it was read as a signal to investors that they shouldn't be fooled by a rebound in stocks and should not buy into the market gains.

But Burry walked that statement back, tweeting Thursday that he "was wrong to say sell." The tweet had been viewed 6.7 million times since it was posted. 

He even congratulated investors who managed to snap up some stocks during the market dip.

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"Going back to the 1920s, there has been no BTFD generation like you. Congratulations," he tweeted on Thursday, referring to the phrase "buy the f****** dip."

It's unclear if Burry was being sarcastic in his latest tweets. The investor has repeatedly sounded the alarm on euphoria in markets, and warned buyers of meme stocks and cryptocurrencies they faced the "mother of all crashes." Burry's Scion Asset Management didn't respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Burry's about-turn came after the tech-focused Nasdaq 100 entered a technical bull market for the first time in nearly three years on Wednesday, after the index closed 20% higher from a December 28 low.

Tech stocks had been under pressure as the Federal Reserve has been hiking interest rates aggressively in the last year in its war on inflation. The hiking cycle makes borrowings costlier. Investors also tend to move their funds from riskier investments such as stocks to low-risk avenues like deposit accounts.

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But recession fears from the banking crisis are also spurring expectations that Fed could slow its rate hikes or even start cutting rates later this year, prompting tech stocks to rise.

Tech stocks have also been outperforming broader indices this year as investors readjusted their allocations amid the banking turmoil.

The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 is up 18.5% so far this year compared to a 5.5% gain in the S&P 500 and a 0.9% decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Index, or DJIA. The S&P 500 and DJIA track companies across a broad range of industries including banks, manufacturing, tech, and retail.

The Nasdaq 100 index closed 0.9% higher at 12,963.14 on Thursday.

MI Exclusive Markets Michael Burry
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