Michael Burry sold a quarter of his semiconductor ETF puts

By Grace Kim

Michael Burry sold 25% of his put options on the VanEck Semiconductor ETF on Thursday, Nov. 5, taking partial profits after chip stocks suffered a broad selloff. The sale covered one-quarter of his SMH position. He retained the balance.

He told readers of his Substack that the puts he retained had “become very large positions.” Burry is known for betting against the U.S. housing market before the 2008 financial crisis. This disclosure covered exchange-traded fund options and corporate shares.

What moved on November 5?

SMH fell 11.2% on Nov. 5, according to Seeking Alpha; the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.5% into correction territory, while the Invesco QQQ Trust lost 6.5%. The chip ETF underperformed both broader measures.

MLQ described chip stocks as trading at their lowest valuations since 2019 after a 12% one-day plunge and a partial rebound the next day. Seeking Alpha’s 11.2% figure applied to SMH. MLQ used 12% in its account of the chip-stock plunge.

How much did Burry close?

Burry disclosed the sale through his Substack rather than a regulatory filing. He did not specify the prices received or the number of contracts sold. He also did not disclose how many SMH contracts remained. The confirmed reduction was 25%. His description of the rest supplied no dollar value or contract count.

That distinction matters because “very large positions” described the retained puts without defining their scale. Investors could not calculate the dollar exposure, potential payoff or how much of his holdings the puts covered because the disclosure omitted contract quantities, strike prices and sale proceeds.

Which positions did he keep?

Burry said he intends to keep puts on four other securities:

• Palantir put options.
• Oracle put options.
• Caterpillar put options.
• QQQ put options; QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100.

These were in addition to the SMH puts he retained. In October, he described almost his entire short position as expressed through SMH and Nasdaq-100, or NDX, puts, concentrating bearish exposure in a semiconductor ETF put and a Nasdaq-100 index put.

On the long side, Burry added to MercadoLibre after the company reported earnings. He bought more shares below $1,500. The disclosure did not state the number of shares purchased or total cost. It also omitted his resulting ownership percentage.

How did the October position look?

The Nasdaq-100 puts expire in April 2027, while the SMH puts expire in June 2027, with both sets roughly 20% out of the money at the time, according to Stocktwits as cited by FinanceBuzz. Their strike prices therefore sat above the relevant market prices when Burry summarized the bearish trade.

Burry also said markets were “within 0-9 months of a significant top.” That statement served as his forecast, not a confirmed turning point or consensus estimate. The October forecast covered the months immediately after his warning. His Nov. 5 disclosure did not revise the call.

What did SMH hold?

Burry said Nvidia represented 19.6% of SMH, Taiwan Semiconductor 9.3% and AMD 5.6%, making Nvidia the largest of the three fund holdings he identified in that account. The allocation linked his SMH put to the performance of Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor and AMD within the fund.

What does the retained book imply now?

The partial rebound on the day after the plunge left Burry’s retained options exposed to a renewed decline in chip and Nasdaq-100 prices. His long MercadoLibre purchase added exposure to a different share price. The April and June 2027 put expiries extend the bearish positions’ time horizon.

Because Burry withheld contract counts and exact strikes, the size of that exposure remains unquantified. The key variable is pricing after Nov. 5, because continued weakness would support the retained puts, while a rebound would reduce their value and shift the portfolio’s main exposure toward MercadoLibre.