The report that all of Wall Street was waiting for was published last night, and immediately became the talk of investors.
Super investor Leopold Aschenbrenner published his F13 report, and his actions are super interesting...
Let's dive in.
First of all, let's organize all the recent changes Leopold's fund made to its portfolio to understand where the money there is flowing...
Leopold's fund opened new positions in a wide range of companies, mainly from the technology sector, but it is important to note that a large part of them come alongside significant hedging purchases:
New stocks purchased: $TE, $HIVE, $SHAZ, $INTC, $AMD, $SMH, $TSM, $MU, $GLW, $ASML and $NVDA.
In addition to the new purchases, Leopold's fund also chose to strengthen its holdings, mainly in companies related to energy, crypto, and computing infrastructure:
Companies in which holdings were increased:
$KEEL, $CLSK, $RIOT, $IREN, $APLD, $BTDR, $CRWV and $SNDK.
Reduction and full sale of stocks. The fund also decided to take some money home, reduce risks, and even completely exit some of its previous investments.
Stocks in which holdings were reduced: $SEI, $CORZ and $BE.
Although $BE stock still constitutes a relatively large holding of about 6.42% of the portfolio.
Stocks that the fund completely sold and exited: $COHR, $LBRT, $TSEM, $HUT, $LITE, $KRC and $EQT.
The highlight: very unusual activity in options.
Here lies the truly interesting story of the report, because the fund made very aggressive moves using options, which indicate a very pessimistic or defensive approach regarding the chip and technology sector:
The fund opened fairly large PUT positions on chip indices and leading companies,
For example, PUT options on the chip ETF $SMH, which currently constitute the largest holding in the portfolio (14.94% of the fund's investments, valued at over $2 billion).
In addition to massive puts on $NVDA, which constitute about 11.47% of the portfolio, and significant puts on companies like $ORCL, $AVGO and $AMD, additional puts were opened on $INTC, $MU, $TSM, $ASML and $GLW, so it is clear that the fund sees risk in these stocks in the near term.
Opening CALL options: a bet on increases:
Despite the general pessimistic approach, the fund opened call options on companies $MU, $TSM and $SNDK.
Could it be that it identifies potential for increases specifically in these companies, or is it combining them into a more complex hedging strategy?
Everyone is talking about Aschenbrenner's shorts...
The problem?
These shorts were bought before April, while the chip ETF rose about 70% in a month!
What is everyone missing?
Aschenbrenner likely entered a short position during Q1, hedged himself from the big March decline, and probably sold in early April.
In fact, Aschenbrenner holds chips and AI infrastructure. Are the puts not really interesting?
What is interesting?
Aschenbrenner is not touching software, meaning, in his opinion, we are still in the infrastructure phase, at least as of the end of March!
He did buy more IREN, thereby averaging down his price, and more SanDisk (when it was 50% cheaper than the current price).
According to super investor Leopold Aschenbrenner's worldview, is the revolution just beginning?