George Soros Saw the Huge Market Decline Coming

George Soros saw the huge market decline coming. During the second quarter Soros reconstructed his portfolio dramatically. His top two positions were S&P 500 (SPY) and Russell 2000 (IWM) puts. He bet almost a billion dollars on these two positions. Nearly half of the top 30 positions in his portfolio were safe corporate bonds, not stocks. He also had call options on Apple (AAPL) and Fedex (FDX), which provide downside protection.

Last month Bloomberg reported that Soros has 75% of his assets in cash:

In mid-June, Anderson told his portfolio managers to pull back on trades as the hedge fund’s losses hit 6 percent for the year, according to two people familiar with the New York-based firm. As a result, the fund is about 75 percent in cash as it waits for better opportunities, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the firm is private.

Soros’ fund was down about 6% during the first half of the year but it seems like he was well positioned to take advantage of the market’s recent decline. Here are Soros’ top holdings in his 13F portfolio at the end of June: