The latest 13F quarterly report from George Soros’s family hedge fund, Soros Fund Management, contains a few interesting details.
First, as noted by Zero Hedge, as of Dec. 31, 2013, the firm’s disclosed Assets Under Management (AUM) have risen to an all-time high of $11.8 billion.
Keep in mind this figure does not necessarily include certain one-time positions, meaning the final number may actually be greater than $11.8 billion.
The second detail worth noting is that the so-called “Soros put,” a position that the noted investor has been working every quarter since 2010, just saw a quarter-to-quarter increase of 154 percent, settling at a record high of $1.3 billion.
Now, a “put” is defined is an “option contract giving the owner the right, but not the obligation, to sell a specified amount of an underlying asset at a set price within a specified time,” as noted by Investopedia.
Most importantly, the buyer of a “put option estimates that the underlying asset will drop below the exercise price before the expiration date.”
True, as a percentage of Soros’ total AUM, the “put” rose to a mere 11.1 percent of his notional holdings.
But considering the fact that Soros is the same man who famously “broke the bank of England,” and that he rarely makes an unprofitable investment, the sudden growth in his legacy position has caught the attention of a few analysts.
Is the 83-year-old market speculator “anticipating some major market downside?” Zero Hedge asks.
Image source: Soros 13F and Zero Hedge.
And here’s a final note worth considering: The latest financial disclosure only accounts for Soros' holdings from 45 days.
“What he may or may not have done with his hedge since then is largely unknown, and since there are no investor letters, there is no way of knowing even on a leaked basis how the billionaire has since positioned for the market,” Zero Hedge notes.
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