A curious finding emerged in the latest 13F by
Soros Fund Management, the family office investment vehicle managing
the personal wealth of George Soros.
The “Soros put”, a legacy hedge position
that the 83-year old has been rolling over every quarter since 2010,
just rose to a record $1.3 billion or the notional equivalent of some
7.09 million SPY-equivalent shares.
Since this was an increase of 154% Q/Q this has
some people concerned that the author of ‘reflexivity’ and the
founder of “open societies” may be anticipating some major market
downside.
Soros Fund Management has doubled up a bet that
the S&P 500 is headed for a fall.
Within Friday’s 13F filings news was the
revelation that the firm, founded by legendary investor George Soros,
increased a put position on the S&P 500 ETF SPY by a whopping
154% in the fourth quarter, compared with the third. (A put or short
position basically gives the owner the right to sell a security at a
set price for a limited time, and in making such a bet, an investor
generally believes the security is going to decline.)
The
value of that holding, the biggest position in the fund, has risen to
$1.3 billion from around $470 million. It now makes up a 11.13% chunk
of all reported holdings. It had been cut to 5.14% in the third
quarter, from 13.54% in the second quarter, which itself marked
another dramatic lift on the bearish call. The numbers can be found
at Whalewisdom.com,
which makes them slightly easier to digest than the actual SEC
filing.
It’s official: China overtakes India as
top consumer of gold
Chinese consumer demand – which includes
jewelry, bars and coins – rose 32 percent on year to a record 1,066
tonnes in 2013. Indian consumers, by comparison, bought 975 tonnes –
a 13 percent rise from the previous year, the latest WGC Gold Demand
Trends report published on Tuesday showed. Globally, consumer demand
climbed 21 percent on year, totaling 3,864 tonnes.
“Demand for gold in China set a remarkable
new record…The impact on the Chinese gold industry of the
extraordinary growth in 2013 demand has been marked, with significant
growth in both manufacturing and retail network capacity,” the WGC,
an industry body representing gold miners, wrote.
Forex: US Dollar May Rise on Pre-Positioning
Before FOMC Minutes
DB
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