A hedge fund manager most famous for his contrarian short positions may have made another fortune in the furious rally by betting on GameStop . Michael Burry, one of the money managers highlighted in Michael Lewis' book "The Big Short" for betting against the housing bubble, held more than 1.7 million shares of the video game retailer at the end of the third quarter, according to securities filings. Burry has been bullish on the company for a while. He told Barron's in 2019 that new consoles from Microsoft and Sony would " extend GameStop's life significantly ." The stock spiked after Burry revealed he was betting on it. Burry had 1,703,400 shares of the stock at the end of the third quarter, according to a securities filing. That is down from the more than 2.7 million he had at the end of the second quarter, but it was still his largest common stock position. Hedge funds such as Burry's Scion Asset Management are required to disclose their end-of-December holdings next month, which will give an updated look at how large Burry's stake was before the recent surge in the stock. GameStop has been subject to a short squeeze in recent days as retail traders have piled into the name, with many of them writing about their trading on social media site Reddit. The stock was up more than 100% at one point on Monday before reversing course and briefly turning negative . Even before Monday's volatile trading, Burry's reported stake would have increased from about $32 million to more than $110 million in January alone — a jump of nearly $79 million. Scion's other largest positions as of the end of September include Facebook, Uniti Group and Western Digital. The fund also reported sizable call option positions in Facebook and Western Digital.
