You know, there’s a story from financial history that still commands respect. It’s about Michael Burry — a doctor who quit medicine and became one of the few who saw what others missed.

In the mid-2000s, he started digging into the ипотечный рынок США. And he noticed something strange: all these CDOs, which rating agencies labeled as triple-A, were actually filled with garbage. Bad loans, risks that no one wanted to see. But Wall Street was in euphoria, buying up these bonds like hotcakes.

Michael Burry made a decision that seemed suicidal. Instead of going along with the crowd, he went against it. He contacted major banks — Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank — and started creating CDS, essentially betting that this house of cards would collapse.

In 2005-2006, Michael Burry invested over a billion dollars of his hedge fund, Scion Capital, into this position. For two years, he was persona non grata. The fund was bleeding, investors demanded his head, everyone thought he was an idiot.

But then came 2008. And Burry was right. The ипотечный рынок США collapsed. CDOs turned to nothing. The result? Over $1.3 billion in profit for investors. And about $100 million for Michael Burry himself.

Burry’s story isn’t just about money. It’s about the ability to see what others don’t, and to have the courage to act when the whole world is against you. By the way, his story even made it into a movie — “The Big Short” about this.