According to 13-F filings with the SEC, billionaire George Soros dumped nearly all his holdings in gold in the first quarter of 2011, after calling it "the ultimate bubble." However, on Wednesday gold halted three days of losses to head back up, as investors sought to buy on the dips.
Reuters reported that, while Soros had earlier been bullish on gold, in Q1 he sold nearly all of his $800 million holdings in bullion. He was followed by Eric Mindich and Paul Touradji, although John Paulson held firm and retained his $4.4 billion stake in the SPDR Gold Trust; he remains the biggest shareholder in the ETF for the quarter.
Mindich, of Eton Park Capital Management, slashed his stake in the ETF by almost half, retaining $326 million for the quarter. Touradji, of Touradji Capital Management, dropped 173,000 shares in the ETF during the quarter.