13F ANALYSIS • CASE STUDY
Michael Burry's Final 13F
Scion Asset Management's last filing reported a put position on Palantir worth $912 million. Burry said he spent $9.2 million. Neither is wrong, and the gap between them is the single most useful thing a 13F can teach you about options.
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What the final filing reported
Scion Asset Management's last 13F covered the quarter ended September 30, 2025, was filed on November 3, 2025, and reported eight positions totalling about $1.38 billion. Every figure below comes from that filing.
| Issuer | Type | Shares | Reported value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palantir Technologies | Put | 5,000,000 | $912.1M |
| Nvidia | Put | 1,000,000 | $186.6M |
| Pfizer | Call | 6,000,000 | $152.9M |
| Halliburton | Call | 2,500,000 | $61.5M |
| Molina Healthcare | Stock | 125,000 | $23.9M |
| Lululemon Athletica | Stock | 100,000 | $17.8M |
| SLM Corp | Stock | 480,054 | $13.3M |
| Bruker Corp (6.375 notes) | Stock | 48,334 | $13.1M |
Read at a glance, that is a fund with a billion-dollar bearish bet on the two most visible names in AI. That is how it was widely reported. It is also, in an important sense, wrong.
The $912 million that cost $9.2 million
After coverage described the Palantir position as a roughly $912 million bet against the company, Burry responded publicly that he had spent about $9.2 million on the options, and that the reporting was off by around a hundred times.
THE TWO NUMBERS
$912.1 million — what the 13F reports. The market value of 5,000,000 Palantir shares at the September 30 close.
$9.2 million — what he said he paid. The premium for the put contracts.
5,000,000 underlying shares is 50,000 contracts at 100 shares each, which reconciles exactly with the contract count Burry described. The filing and his correction describe the same position.
The distinction matters because the two numbers answer different questions. Notional value tells you how much stock the position references. Premium tells you how much money is at risk. For a long put, the most that can be lost is the premium — so the honest description of the trade is a $9.2 million bet, structured to pay off substantially if Palantir fell far enough.
Why both numbers are correct
Form 13F reports an option position at the market value of the underlying shares, not at the premium paid. The filing was accurate. So was Burry. The error was in the reading.
This is not a quirk or a loophole. The information table has one value column, and it holds the market value of the securities the position covers. For common stock those two things are the same, which is why the trap only springs on options — and why it springs so reliably, since most positions in most filings are stock.
WHAT THE FILING DOES NOT CONTAIN
- —The strike price
- —The expiration date
- —The premium paid
- —Whether the option was bought or written
Without strike and expiry you cannot value the position, and without knowing the direction you cannot even be certain of the exposure. Everything the public learned about the strike level and timing of this trade came from Burry himself, not from the filing.
95% of the portfolio was not stock
Split the final filing by instrument type and the distortion becomes structural rather than anecdotal.
- —Puts: 2 positions, about $1,098.7M — 79.5% of reported value
- —Calls: 2 positions, about $214.4M — 15.5%
- —Common stock and notes: 4 positions, about $68.1M — 4.9%
Only about one dollar in twenty of the reported value was actual stock. The headline “$1.38 billion portfolio” described roughly $68 million of equity plus a set of option positions whose combined cost is unknown from the filing but is necessarily a fraction of their $1.31 billion notional.
THE DETAIL THAT GIVES IT AWAY
The previous quarter's filing reported 15 positions worth about $578 million. The final one reported 8 positions worth about $1.38 billion. Reported value rose roughly 139% while the position count nearly halved — during a quarter in which the manager was, per his own letter to investors, preparing to liquidate. Notional accounting on a few option positions produced the entire increase.
How to read an options position in a 13F
Four habits prevent the entire class of error this case demonstrates.
- —Check the PUT/CALL column before reading any value. A blank means stock, where value and exposure coincide. Anything else means the value column is notional.
- —Convert shares to contracts. Divide the share count by 100. It is a faster sanity check on position size than the dollar figure.
- —Never rank an options position against a stock position by value. They are different units. A $900M notional put and a $900M stock holding are not comparable commitments.
- —Treat percentage-of-portfolio as meaningless when options are present. Any weighting computed from the value column will be dominated by notional.
This sits inside a larger pattern: a 13F answers a narrow question and gets misread as answering a broad one. Options are simply the case where the mismatch is most quantifiable — here, about a hundred to one.
Why there will not be another Scion 13F
Scion Asset Management terminated its SEC registration on November 10, 2025, one week after filing. Burry had written to investors on October 27 saying he would liquidate the funds and return capital. The 13F obligation attaches to registered institutional managers above the reporting threshold, so deregistration ended it.
Three quarterly deadlines have passed since — February, May and August 2026 — with no filing, which is the expected consequence rather than a gap in the record.
The historical filings remain public and permanent. All of them, including this one, sit on EDGAR under CIK 0001649339, and can be pulled directly by anyone. Deregistration stops new reports; it does not withdraw old ones.
Which makes this filing unusually durable as a teaching case. Most 13F analysis is stale within a quarter. This one cannot be superseded.
Frequently asked questions
What was in Michael Burry's final 13F filing?
Scion Asset Management's final 13F, covering the quarter ended September 30, 2025 and filed on November 3, 2025, reported eight positions with a total reported value of about $1.38 billion. Two were put positions — Palantir at roughly $912 million and Nvidia at roughly $187 million — two were call positions in Pfizer and Halliburton, and four were common stock holdings in Molina Healthcare, Lululemon, SLM Corp and Bruker. Options accounted for about 95% of the reported value.
Did Michael Burry really bet $912 million against Palantir?
No. The 13F reported a put position on 5,000,000 Palantir shares with a value of about $912 million, which is the market value of the underlying shares rather than the amount spent. Burry publicly stated that he spent about $9.2 million on the options, and said press coverage was off by roughly 100 times. Both figures are accurate: the filing reports notional value, while the cash at risk on a long put is the premium paid.
How are options reported on a 13F?
Options are reported at the market value of the underlying shares they control, with a PUT or CALL flag in the information table. The share count is the number of underlying shares, so a position on 5,000,000 shares represents 50,000 contracts of 100 shares each. The filing does not disclose the strike price, the expiration date, or the premium paid, which means an option position cannot be valued from a 13F alone.
Why did Scion Asset Management stop filing 13Fs?
Scion Asset Management terminated its SEC registration on November 10, 2025. Michael Burry had written to investors on October 27, 2025 saying he would liquidate the funds and return capital. Because the 13F obligation attaches to registered institutional investment managers above the reporting threshold, deregistration ended the requirement. The filing submitted on November 3, 2025 was the last one.
Where can I find Scion Asset Management 13F filings?
All of Scion Asset Management's 13F filings remain permanently available on SEC EDGAR under CIK 0001649339, including the final filing from November 2025. Deregistration ends the obligation to file new reports but does not remove historical filings from the public record.
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ANALYSIS
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Leverage, shorts and private stakes — the structural blind spots this case sits inside.
HOW-TO
How to Read a 13F Filing
Every column in the information table, including the PUT/CALL flag.
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Why US-listed options are reportable at all, and what is permanently excluded.
HOW-TO
How to Find a Fund's 13F on EDGAR
Pull the Scion filings yourself — they remain public under CIK 0001649339.