NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor George Soros, who has been warning that the 2008 financial crisis could be repeated due to China's economic slowdown, on Monday disclosed his doubled wager against the S&P 500 in the first quarter.
Soros Fund Management said it owned a 2.1-million-share "put" option in the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) exchange-traded fund (ETF) which tracks the benchmark U.S. stock index. That was up from about 1 million shares in the option in the fourth quarter, it said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Soros also disclosed owning 51,700 shares in the ETF, up from 8,1000 shares in the fourth quarter.
Put options, generally considered bearish bets, give the holder the right to sell shares at a specific price by a certain date. Calls, generally considered bullish bets, give the holder the right to buy shares at a specific price.
Hedge-fund SEC disclosures are backward-looking and come out 45 days after the end of each quarter. Still, the filings offer a glimpse into what hedge fund managers saw as investment opportunities.
In the first quarter, Soros, who once called gold "the ultimate bubble," resumed buying the precious metal after a three-year hiatus, adding 1.05 million shares in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's biggest gold exchanged-traded fund, valued at about $123.5 million.
A spokesman for Soros declined to comment.