Waiting on some positive news, page-31

longorshort, partly correct. The book was written by Michael Lewis, a journalist probably best known to us as author of Flash Boys (although he did start his career as a bond salesman). He wasn't Burry -- the hedge fundy who did the big short.

Lewis was arguably over-dramatic and simplified in depicting the GFC (e.g., he ignored the US Fed, Fanny Mae, and others as culprits). Adam McKay (Big Short director/writer -- best known for writing Saturday Night Live comedy) would have further amplified characters and events in the film (this is Hollywood!), with the result that it might fall into the emerging genre called semi-fictionalized history. Still, you are correct that the film is not completely fictional.

Burry's successful short in the GFC is not evidence that short selling is good for you (or anyone else). Much better evidence is that the performance of hedge funds (which rely heavily on short selling -- Burry's firm was a hedge fund) is typically below average market returns and no better than long-only funds (but 2016 may be one year that hedge funds beat the market average!). Here are US data from HFR research. There is contrary evidence (a Imperial College 2012 study concludes hedge fund performance is better -- likely due to the years sampled), but most evidence says it ain't so.