Clinton-Backer George Soros Gets Out of Gold ETF Just in Time, Whiffs on Barrick Gold (ABX)

Billionaire George Soros has fought several battles in his life and won most of them. However, the election of Donald Trump as POTUS will probably go down as one of his worst losses, both politically and personally. It is well known that Mr. Soros supported Hillary Clinton during the Presidential race, but what is lesser known is that he spent a lot of money to see that the Democrats remained in power and that the liberal ideals he holds dearly and has fought for all his life remain strong. Now that the election results are out, it’s evident that Mr. Soros has suffered a setback on a lot of fronts, but looking at the trades he made during the third quarter, it seems financial wasn’t one of them.

At the start of the year Mr. Soros was extremely bullish on gold and was quite vocal about it. His bullishness on gold paid off well, as gold prices surged by nearly 30% during the first seven months of the year. However, they have declined heavily in the current quarter, with most of those losses coming in after Mr. Trump’s victory was announced. Despite this bearish move against the commodity, Mr. Soros’ portfolio wasn’t affected much, as he had liquidated a large chunk of his gold holdings during the third quarter according to Soros Fund Management‘s recent 13F filing. The filing also revealed that during the third quarter the fund’s U.S equity portfolio experienced a turnover of 92.83% and that at the end of that period it was worth almost $4 billion. In this article, we will take a look at the five major moves made by the fund during the third quarter.

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SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD)

Let’s start with the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD), which was one of Soros Fund Management’s major holdings at the end of the second quarter, worth $30.36 million at that time. The fund had initiated its stake in SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD) during the second quarter, but sold off that stake last quarter. Since the SPDR Gold Trust tracks and seeks to replicate the performance of the price of gold bullion, the decline it has seen in the current quarter is nearly the same as that of physical gold. However, it is still trading up by over 15% year-to-date.

 Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

– Shares Held By Soros Fund Management (as of September 30): 39,510

– Value of the Holding (as of September 30): $33.08 Million

Soros Fund Management reduced its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 69% during the second quarter. However, it reversed its decision in the third quarter and increased its holding in the company by 215% during that time. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock has declined considerably in the last few weeks after the company reported its third-quarter results, which has wiped out the gains it made during the third quarter. Nevertheless, most analysts consider this a short-term correction and expect the stock to resume its uptrend soon, including analysts at Axiom Securities, who on November 11 reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on the stock while upping their price target on it to $953 from $877. On Wednesday, the company launched a family plan for its music streaming service that will allow 6 users to access its service for a monthly fee of only $14.99.

We’ll check out two more of the fund’s stock picks on the next page.