From the SMH blog:
Billionaire investor George Soros has doubled up on a bet that the US sharemarket is headed for a fall, taking a position now worth $US1.3 billion, reports The Wall Street Journal.
New regulatory filings show that the Soros Funds Management increased a put position on the S&P 500 ETF SPY by 154 per cent 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.
The second- and third-biggest positions in the regulatory filing were a fresh put on the Energy Select Sector SPDR fund and a big jump in a holding in Israeli pharmaceutical maker Teva.
It’s been roughly 28 months since a substantial correction for the S&P 500.
It was Soros himself who famously once said: “I rely a great deal on animal instincts.” And as we all know, George’s made some big, crazy, winning bets in the past.
