'Shoulder to shoulder with Michael Burry': A day trader details his bearish thesis on one of the Reddit crowd's favorite stocks

• Insitutions get pegged as the "smart money," but retail traders have shown they can do their homework, too.
• A post on a Michael Burry-themed subreddit this week stood out for its contrarian take on a retail favorite.
• Laurence Bradingmunn told Business Insider he's betting against AI darling Palantir. Here's why.

It's well known that retail traders love the meme culture of Wall Street Bets, but Reddit has become a fertile ground for genuine stock-market debate in the years since Roaring Kitty sparked the great GameStop short-squeeze.

Every so often, a well-argued thesis on a particular stock stands out. Of course, there's Keith Gill's famous posts unpacking why GameStop would soar. More recently, in October, a post from a retail trader disclosing a massive bet on struggling Beyond Meat blew up and quickly led to a major short squeeze.

This week, in a forum dedicated to "The Big Short" investor Michael Burry, one user posted their reasoning for betting against one of retail's favorite stocks: Palantir Technologies.

Palantir stock is down 17% year to date, though it is still up 83% in the last year. Laurence Bradingmunn (u/Gerbil12345) thinks there's no reason shares should be as high as they are.

Bradingmunn spoke to Business Insider about his bearish take on Palantir, noting that Burry's short position inspired him to bet against the stock. Like Burry, he sees the company as highly overvalued but also has concerns about the broader AI space.

"I'm going shoulder to shoulder with Michael Burry on his thesis that the AI bubble is about to burst—specifically focusing on Palantir's extreme overvaluation and how the AI bubble (Government) has managed to shoot their stock to the moon," Bradingmunn wrote.

The 20-year-old Bradingmunn doesn't work in finance, but he told Business Insider that he's been following Burry for years. And while he isn't technically shorting Palantir but buying put options against it with strike prices in 2027 and 2028, similar to Burry, he maintains that the stock is pointed down.

Bradingmunn provided further context on the stock, laying out why he finds Palantir's $350 billion market cap concerning. He compared it to several other prominent tech stocks that he thinks Wall Street is valuing much more realistically.

"If you compare it to the companies with similar market caps, like AMD, Salesforce, Adobe, and you look at their actual profits, it's a stark contrast," he said. "I don't believe [Palantir] can grow quick enough to meet the current valuation."

The retail trader said that he found it unusually difficult to learn what Palantir actually does to make money, another factor that's fed his bearish thesis. However, he added that he's equally concerned by Palantir's status as a stock highly dedicated cult following.

Palantir stock is a well known favorite among retail investors, who have shown a deep admiration for CEO Alex Karp. Yet Bradingmunn speculated that many retail traders aren't taking time to assess the company's fundamentals.

"It can be very easy to follow someone's Reddit post talking about how great a stock is, and just fall for that," he acknowledged. "I'm trying to take a more constructive thesis and to try and look at the actual numbers of all these stocks and see how I can have a different side of the story."

Bradingmunn acknowledges that the company may benefit from lucrative defense contracts with the US government, but he also sees significant risk from the company's share dilution. As of late 2025, it had roughly 2.38 billion shares outstanding, a major spike from the 1 billion when it first listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bradingmunn thinks investors should be concerned by this. "I believe it should be worth about $50 per share." The stock closed on Friday at $146.59.