In a Financial Times article by Dan McCrum, “Paulson cuts gold fund holding,” it was disclosed that uber investor John Paulson had sold a third of his position in SPDR Gold Shares (GLD, quote), the exchange-traded fund for gold.
Meanwhile, legendary financier George Soros has increased his holdings of GLD, along with other investing lumanaries such as Steve Cohen of SAC Capital and Paul Touradji of Touradji Capital LP.
Earlier in the year, George Soros was selling gold. But when gold hit its peak for the year on August 22 of just over $1,900 an ounce, SPDR Gold Shares was the most valuable exchange-traded fund in terms of capitalization, worth more than any of the index funds, including SPDR S&P 500 (SPY, quote), the Standard & Poor’s 500 exchange-traded fund.
At present, the market cap for GLD is around $73 billion, with the market cap for SPY roughly $86 billion.
Touradji Capital LP, headed by Paul Touradji, was also a first-time buyer of gold, holding none when he filed his June 30 paperwork. Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital LP now owns more than 184,000 shares of GLD.
For the year, the SPDR Gold Shares is up more than 30%. Now around $173, it was well under $160 a share in mid-October. As detailed in a previous article on www.emergingmoney.com, “Bernanke to emerging market investors: buy commodities,” prices for gold are heading higher due to the policies of the Federal Reserve.