Beware Soros Is Maxing Out ! – S&P 500 Shorts

George Soros’ biggest holdings these days, 13% of his fund to be exact, is a bearish put option on the S&P 500.

Read it here. http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/08/15/soross-biggest-holding-a-bearish-call-on-the-sp-500/

Ok. The man is not a saint but he is not alone.

Like we wrote 2 weeks ago, Cashing Out Time, billionaires from Li Ka-Shing to hedge fund owners are all moving out en masse.

I will not publish a chart I just received because it is confidential but it essentially shows that professional and institutional clients have been selling the S&P 500 since late June while retail clients have piled in big since then.

But I managed to drag out the CFTC positioning report for Mini S&P (assume for retail) and S&P futures (assume professional) and the positions are diverging indeed. Note the July longs established in the e-minis.

 

Recalling a conversation I had with some stock pros, the rule of thumb is, if the price moves up significantly, the retail chase starts, the push up has to be fierce because they need sufficient retail buy volumes to make sure they can sell out their chunky stakes.