I have an idea for a sequel to the Big Short
It is called the Short Short. Loose synopsis:
Michael Burry watches the Incredible Hulk (the Eric Bana one) one night and then checks his portfolio afterwards. He's taking an absolute bath on Nvidia puts. Really really bad. He then thinks to himself that maybe he was wrong and data centers will continue to pop up and that AI isn't the bubble he thought it was. He says "cmon Michael, you're the big short guy...surely there's another big short right around the corner! Short big or go home!"
Then, it clicks.
That night, after jerking off to a Lehman Brothers documentary, he has a dream that data centers can somehow expose people to gamma rays and cause hulk-like genetic mutations. He comes to the conclusion that the human population will rapidly become a taller species as a result.
He immediately calls up the president of Deutsche Bank and says he wants to open a short position on little people clothes. They tell him "Look Michael, you can't open a short position on little people clothes in general. Do you have any idea how impractical it would be to structure a derivative on aggregated midget clothes sales data?" He says "so you're telling me I can't midget the short market? I mean short the midget market? I mean...short the little people market?"
"You're goddamn right" they say in the Heisenberg voice. He says alright, opens WeBull, and opens the largest short position on Build a Bear in history.
A week later, Build a Bear announces a partnership with Moderna for a new T cell therapy. The market cap quadruples. Burry turns to his Bernie Madoff poster and says "how can I be so stupid? I really thought this was the one. You know, the one around the corner like I talked about in the first paragraph...I had such conviction"
Burry, now experiencing hallucinations, hears the Bernie Madoff poster speak "Well to be fair, little people don't shop at Build a Bear. They never did. It's a place where children buy stuffed animals, Michael." Michael responds "I had no idea. I could've sworn it was for them. The clothes would fit. I never measured, but by the eye test I think most of the clothes would fit most of them. So that's why none of this worked, huh? Build a Bear is just some crazy toy store?" Madoff concludes "Well partially. That and they cured teddy bear lymphoma"
Burry, in a sobering moment, realizes he can't stay solvent. He concedes, then buys a Build a Bear and dresses it in lululemon. Before killing himself, he asks the Bernie Madoff poster to stuff the bear with his ashes and drop it in the hudson river at market open the next day. Madoff replies "I'm a poster"