Soros Still Enamoured With Paulson Picks

One of my favorite anecdotes from the book The Greatest Trade Ever was when John Paulson heads up to George Soros’ offices for a light lunch and a heavy discussion of how Paulson’s real estate/ mortgage crash trade was conceived and constructed.

It seems that Soros continues to follow his new friend into positions and trades.

Consider that in the latest 13F filing, Soros disclosed a doubling of his stake in $GLD, Paulson’s biggest bet going.  Soros also revealed that he is piling into Citigroup ($C) … once again behind JP.

From TheStreet.com:

Soros bought 95 million shares of Citigroup during the fourth quarter, according to a quarterly filing on Tuesday. Soros’ Citi buying spree equaled $313 million worth of Citi shares at year’s end. It was a big move into Citi, as Soros had previously reported no exposure to Citigroup in quarterly filings.

Soros’ bullish turn on Citi echoed the trading strategy of his hedge fund peer John Paulson, who has been a big backer of a banking sector recovery in general, and Bank of America and Citigroup specifically. While Paulson sold a few million of the 159 million Bank of America shares he owns in the fourth quarter, Paulson bulked up on Citi shares, buying an additional 200 million shares to take his overall stake in Citi to above 500 million shares.

This is all as of the end of the 4th quarter, things could have changed over the past 45 days.  Interesting nonetheless.  And what do you call it when an old pro takes on a younger mentor?  There’s probably a name for that type of relationship, give me a shout if you can think of it.

Source:

Soros Matches Paulson’s Bet on Citi (TheStreet.com)