stocks appeared even more remarkable when compared with massive daily swings in Treasury yields that briefly caused implied volatility in the bond market to explode to its highest level since 2008. stocks proved surprisingly resilient, shrugging off a transatlantic crisis of confidence in the banking sector, renewed fears of an economic downturn, and expectations that S&P 500 companies suffered their biggest quarterly earnings decline since the second quarter of 2020. The index has fallen roughly 3% since that day, according to FactSet data.īut the trend changed once again in March, as U.S. That proved to be the large-cap index’s highest close of 2023, as several weeks of declines followed. 2, a few days after Burry’s “sell” tweet, the S&P 500 indexĬlosed at 4,179.76 after the Fed delivered a 25 basis point interest rate hike. Rise 10.7%, according to FactSet - its best start to a year in nearly two decades. housing market that triggered the 2008 financial crisis, was advising his followers to sell stocks after a stellar January run-up that saw the Nasdaq Composite The hedge-fund manager, who correctly anticipated the collapse of the U.S. As the Fed meets, here’s how they both could be wrong on stocks. Michael Lewis, “is the finest storyteller of our generation.See: Michael Burry says sell and Jim Cramer says buy. Who saw the ever-rising real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times. Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestselling Liar’s Poker. The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear in any case, they weren’t talking. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine, and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news.

Featuring an Exclusive Audio Interview with Michael Lewis

The big short by michael lewis