Joel Greenblatt is an established investor who has written a well-known book about investing. He takes an interest in the blog of Mike Burry (who has read Greenblatt’s book) and becomes his first investor. Despite being an early supporter, however, when Burry’s fund begins temporarily losing money, Greenblatt tries to pull out. After the first edition of The Big Short is published, Greenblatt contacts Lewis to clarify that he was only trying to take money from Burry because Greenblatt himself was facing calls for money from investors.
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Joel Greenblatt Character Timeline in The Big Short
The timeline below shows where the character Joel Greenblatt appears in The Big Short. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...like him because they know his writing. Eventually, Burry gets his first million from Joel Greenblatt, an investor who wrote a book that Burry read and admired. From there, Burry begins...
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Chapter 8
...writes a quarterly report to defend himself, but it comes off as antagonistic. Even Joel Greenblatt, an early supporter of Burry, is pressuring him to abandon his bets, but Burry doesn’t...
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Chapter 9
...will have earned profits of more than $720 million. He shoots off an email to Greenblatt’s firm that simply says, “You’re welcome.” Burry buys them out of his company.
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