Michael Burry, known for his criticism of the AI hype, has recently freed himself from financial regulatory constraints and is leveraging his newfound freedom to share his favorite stock picks.

The investor, who inspired the movie "The Big Short," closed his hedge fund to external capital this month, citing frustration with SEC rules that "muzzled" him. He now communicates through his newly launched Substack platform, aptly named "Cassandra Unchained."

"You know I own and like Lululemon Athletica (LULU), Molina Healthcare (MOH), and Shift4 Payments (FOUR)," Burry wrote in a Wednesday post. "I also hold Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA, or Freddie Mac), but as an over-the-counter stock, it was never disclosed. These are all 3-5 year holds at least. I’ll analyze these and others in future posts. I believe the $20–120 billion market cap range is the most fertile ground for investment right now."

Burry added that this is "the best time of year to find great companies oversold due to window dressing by fund managers and tax-loss harvesting by investors." He explained that many fund managers dislike showcasing heavily losing stocks at year-end—a concern he doesn’t share.

Lululemon is a premium athletic apparel retailer famous for its yoga pants. Molina Healthcare provides affordable health insurance and services to low-income and elderly Americans. Shift4 Payments is a fintech firm offering payment processing and business tools for hospitality, restaurants, and e-commerce. FNMA, a government-sponsored enterprise, supports the U.S. housing market by guaranteeing over $4 trillion in mortgages.

The first three stocks appeared in Scion Asset Management’s portfolio updates over the past year, while FNMA trades OTC, exempting Burry’s firm from disclosing it in 13F filings.

A Bargain Hunter’s Playbook Burry gained fame for shorting the mid-2000s housing bubble and frequently predicting downturns. A deep-value investor, he excels at spotting undervalued, often smaller, beaten-down stocks.

Year-to-date, Lululemon has plunged 52%, Molina dropped 49%, and Shift4 Payments fell 32%—despite recent 5–10% rebounds. All three trade below $25 billion market caps, with Lululemon and Molina priced below 15x forward P/E ratios.

In contrast, FNMA has nearly tripled this year on speculation that a Trump administration might privatize it and sibling Freddie Mac (FMCC), ending post-crisis federal conservatorship and paving the way for relisting.

In a recent X post, Burry revealed long positions in Molina and put options against AI darling Palantir (PLTR)—even after its CEO Alex Karp criticized him. "Long MOH and short PLTR puts go together like peanut butter and bananas," he wrote. Earlier, he also disclosed a short position in NVIDIA (NVDA).

Palantir’s stock has surged ~26x since early 2023, valuing the AI firm near $400 billion—about 90x this year’s expected revenue.

Separately, Burry shared that retail trader Keith Gill ("Roaring Kitty") emailed him in August 2019, thanking him for advocating changes at struggling GameStop (GME). This suggests both recognized GME’s potential long before it became a meme-stock phenomenon.