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Movies, myths and investment madness

ended 19. August 2025

Newspager David Belle is a trader who reckons a lot of investors are doing daft things because of a movie made a decade ago about an event - the Global Financial Crisis - that happened almost two decades ago.

The Big Short hit screens in 2015 and Belle reckons it romanticised short-selling and made too many investors believe that everything is a bubble about to burst, which he refers to as the Burryfication of the market (Michael Burry being one of the key hedgies who shorted the hell out of the US housing market and the CDOs in which it was wrapped).

This romanticisation and the dream of being the next Burry has resulted in investors missing out on momentum as many believe momentum always comes unstuck. In the meantime, many major stocks have continued to grow and the bubble has not burst.

What are your thoughts on this? Has a movie perverted reality in the minds of investors? Are the myths surrounding the huge event that was the GFC negatively impacting investors’ mindsets almost two decades on? Is it mad to believe everything has to pop, or is it wise to believe it could?

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Samuel Mather-Holgate
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
The tradjectory of most assets is up, as inflation usually makes things more expensive even if all other things are equal. Short selling doesn't have an inherant floor, so prepare to lose your house if you get it wrong. That said, with some crypto currencies going stratespheric, maybe there is a bubble somewhere and there is a long way down if in implodes.
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David Belle
Founder and Trader at Fink Money
The Burryfication of investors' minds - where they think every price rise is some form of bubble - has caused more investment losses than any other type of fraud and is a godsend for hedgefunds.

Some cases, such as GME in 2021, are indeed a bubble that has no chance of coming back.

But many, like semiconductors, are not - simply because revenues are real and innovation is taking place.

Robeco did a study which found about half of 'bubbles' that burst end up having a higher share price 2 years later.

It's about sector selection and understanding businesses, it is not about blindly calling something a bubble because the price has increased a lot.