Argonaut Capital Management, a hedge fund focused on a global macro strategy, manages over $6 billion in assets. The performance in Q2 was unimpressive, due to its failed short investments in Europe. In the latest 13F filed with the SEC by Argonaut, a few changes in its long portfolio can be seen. The total value of assets disclosed is just above 435 million, a strong contrast with the $6 billion in AUM. It is likely that the fund invests largely in shorts and other types of non-equity assets. The summary of the new public portfolio is based on 46 holdings with 26 new purchases. The breakup of the portfolio till the end of September’s quarter is as follows:
Top Holdings
The top five holdings include iShares Russell 2000 Index (ETF) (NYSEARCA:IWM) index with 467,544 shares, PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQ) with 423,097 shares, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) with 12,293 shares, SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) with 31,394 shares and Phillip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) with 38,670 shares.
New Holdings
New stakes were initiated in Q3, the largest positions were acquired in call and put options for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY). The positions in iShares Russell 2000 Index (ETF) (NYSEARCA:IWM) and PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQ) were also initiated in the last quarter. Other than these, Argonaut Capital also bought 506,900 call options iniShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (ETF) (NYSEARCA:FXI).
The fund also opened positions in Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG), The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX), and Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), among others.
Additions
Shares in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) were increased by 8 percent in Q3, 1000 more shares were bought. The position in JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) was expanded with another 6940 shares, which is an increase of 50 percent on the previous holding. SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) was increased by 318 percent, with an addition of 23,894 shares to the existing position.
Reductions
Argonaut Capital sold out the entire stakes in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE:TDG), Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH), and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA). The closed positions made 3-5.3 percent of Q2’s public portfolio.
