Investing magnate Soros bets big on S&P collapse

FXstreet.com (New York) - As if investors and equity holders had enough to worry about with the looming September Fed meeting, reports have just surfaced of mega-investor George Soros making a substantial put order on the S&P 500 ETF (SPY).

Investors need only read the tea leaves to surmise where his position stands, given Soros Fund Management’s vast reload of a put order for SPY units, now tallied at a staggering 1,248,643 units in the quarter. Recall that Soros’ hot hand, with renewed positions in Apple, coupled with sell offs in gold, the AUD and Netflix (NFLX), which all netted billions. As such, with nearly $1.25 billion now tied up in his latest move, observers should likely take notice.

Indeed, Soros’ fund increased its share in the SPY position from 1.28% to 4.79% in the first quarter alone, nearly tripling its overall weight – as if this was not enough, the second quarter witnessed an allocation to 13.54% in Q2.

Reason to fear S&P cataclysm?

Deciphering the moves of this fund are extremely convoluted, given that the quarter over quarter view does not identify specifically when the put orders were made. Still, thee last time SPY puts topped the Soros Fund was in the 30th June 2011 filing, which witnessed the S&P 500 losing more than 15% over a 6-7 week interval. Perhaps more worrying, the position in 2011 was less than half the size of the current one which certainly will lead to many sleepless nights for S&P bulls with long positions.