"according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission." Why did he have to file this? And there are no details, so the filing is essentially: "I am short."
Few things of note: 1. This is a Q1 report. Positions might have been closed out by now. 2. Strike prices of all these options positions are unknown. 3. Premiums paid are unknown. Realistically, if he made these trades OTC versus his prime broker, only the prime broker (ie, an investment bank) would know. That's how many of the biggest trades are done. The bank may lay off the short vol slowly, or cover it with several strikes and maturities using automated tools. The only time a bank would hedge aggressively is when they expect the customer to come back and do another piece of the same trade. Presumably if they thought the trade were extremely toxic, they would have passed on it. If the contracts were listed, option traders would look at big trades that hit the tape without contingent stock printing simultaneously, and call the brokers that crossed those trades to ask which bank sent the order to the floor. Then they'd compare that against banks which are believed to trade with Burry, and filter to get a guess at how much he traded. This may be tough with TSLA because there is so much activity, but in smaller names where only a couple of big prints go up daily, it's pretty easy to figure out who trades what. The banks that trade options against big players get quoted on a lot of stuff that eventually trades at a different bank, so they can often infer the identity of the client when they see the print hit the tape. CNBC, on the other hand, know nothing and simply report what they are told and what they observe in regulatory filings. Their chief function is not to break news, but rather to distribute it -- like a buddy who is very up-to-date on current events. That said: > $530 million bet > long puts against 800,100 shares So he bought 8001 put options on some undisclosed date at an undisclosed strike date and price. We can take a look at the options chain for TSLA to get an idea. Choosing $450 puts for September 17th 2021 as an example would cost about $16.70 per share: One option counting for 100 shares, that would really be a (8001 * 16.70 * 100) 13.36 million dollar bet. Suppose that TSLA is worth only $400 on that date, with his right to sell at $450 he'd be in the money for 40 million dollars, or roughly $26 million in profits. A far cry from "half a billion" but headlines have to be written and clicks ain't gonna click themselves
I think his timing is (was?) decent actually; there are hardly any surviving TSLA bears left, and there is good downside momentum now. Of course, being a TSLA bear historically speaking is bad for your [account's] health.