The Wall Street Journal
Soros nearly doubles down bearish bet against S&P 500
By Maria Armental
Published: Aug 16, 2016 2:29 a.m. ET

Billionaire investor George Soros, who rose to fame and fortune by betting against sterling in 1992, on Monday showed his latest hand: nearly doubling down on his bearish bet against the market.

The 86-year-old’s fund, Soros Fund Management LLC, disclosed in a regulatory filing it had increased its bet against the S&P 500, the main index used to measure big-stock performance in the U.S., and holds put options on roughly four million shares in an exchange-traded fund that tracks the index. That is up from “puts” on 2.1 million shares as of March 31.

Meanwhile, Soros’s fund also cut sharply its position in gold, selling off the bulk of the shares it had bought last quarter in Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, and cutting sharply its position in a gold-backed ETF set up by the World Gold Council. Soros’s fund had opened the position in the first quarter, disclosing call options in about one million shares. Soros also sold off the stake it opened last quarter in miner Silver Wheaton.

The Hungarian refugee has been shifting the fund’s focus back to the big-picture economic global view that earned him recognition as he continues to warn of a coming financial crisis, much as he did leading to the 2007 crash.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/soros-nearly-doubles-down-bearish-bet-against-sp-500-2016-08-16