George Soros Had A $1.3 Billion Bet That The Stock Market Would Go Down

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george soros

REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

George Soros

One day every quarter, the world's big fund managers reveal some of what they're buying and selling in their 13-F regulatory filings.

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Generally speaking, these revelations aren't taken too seriously as they are 45-day-old snapshots. But over the weekend, one gigantic $1.3 billion position raised some eyebrows.

Soros Fund Management disclosed that it held put options on 7,090,000 million shares of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) at the end of Q4

Puts protect the holder of the option from declining prices. Soros' position makes money if $1.3 billion worth of the SPY declines in value.

And at $1.3 billion, this represents the largest position in the portfolio.

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At the end of Q3, the fund held just 2,794,100 of these options.