A list of the top 50 BlackRock holdings showing which stocks are owned by BlackRock Inc's hedge fund.

As of June 17, 2024, the most shorted stock was for, the American holographic technology services provider, MicroCloud Hologram Inc., with 66.64 percent of their total float having been shorted. This is a change from mid-January 2021, when video game retailed GameStop had an incredible 121.07 percent of their available shares in a short position. In effect this means that investors had 'borrowed' more shares (with a future promise to return them) than the total number of shares available for public trading. Owing to this behavior of professional investors, retail investors enacted a campaign to drive up the stock price of Gamestop, leading to losses of billions when investors had to repurchase the stock they had borrowed. At this time, a similar – but less effective – social media campaign was also carried out for the stock price of cinema operator AMC, and the price of silver. What is short selling? Short selling is essentially where an investor bets on a share price falling by: borrowing a number of shares selling these shares while the price is still high; purchasing the same number again once the price falls; then returning the borrowed shares at a profit. Of course, a profit will only be made if the share price does fall; should the share price rise the investor will then need to purchase the shares back at a higher price, and thus incur a loss. Short selling can lead to some very large profits in a short amount of time, with Tesla stock generating over one billion dollars in short sell profits during the first week of March 2020 alone, owing to the financial crash caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, owing to the short-term, opportunistic nature of short selling, these returns look less impressive when considered as net profits from short sell positions over the full year. The risks of short selling Short selling carries greater risks than traditional investments, and for this reason financial advisors often recommend against this strategy for ‘retail’ (i.e. non-professional) investors. The reason for this is that losses from short selling are potentially uncapped, whereas losses from traditional investments are limited to the initial cost. For example, if someone purchases 100 dollars of shares, the maximum they can lose is the 100 dollars the spent on those shares. However, say someone borrows 100 dollars of shares instead, betting on the price falling. If these shares are then sold for 100 dollars but the price subsequently rises, the losses could greatly exceed the initial investment should the price rise to, say, 500 dollars. The risks of short selling can be seen by looking again at Tesla, with the company causing the greatest losses over 2020 from short selling at over 40 billion U.S. dollars.

A list of the top 50 Bridgewater Associates holdings showing which stocks are owned by Ray Dalio's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 Appaloosa holdings showing which stocks are owned by David Tepper's hedge fund.

The National Stock Exchange of India cemented its place as the largest derivatives exchange in the world in 2023. Mumbai-based NSE traded nearly ** billion derivatives contracts in 2023, followed by the Brazilian exchange, B3, with *** billion contracts. What is a derivative? A derivative is a financial instrument that is based on an underlying asset, such as an equity, commodity, or currency. It can be traded over-the-counter or on an exchange. The most common types of derivatives are futures, options, forwards and swaps. How large is the derivative market? There are billions of derivatives traded globally every year. The largest markets for derivatives trading are Asia Pacific and North America. Currency options and futures alone contribute hundreds of millions of dollars in volume to the largest exchanges. Much of this volume is due to large corporations trying to hedge risk. For example, an international corporation may invest in a currency derivative to ensure that it can buy a particular currency at or below a certain price at some point in the future, protecting against an unfavorable shift in the exchange rate.

A list of the top 50 Scion Asset Management holdings showing which stocks are owned by Michael Burry's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 Point72 Asset Management holdings showing which stocks are owned by Steven Cohen's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 Vanguard Group Inc holdings showing which stocks are owned by Vanguard Group Inc's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 Soros Fund Management holdings showing which stocks are owned by George Soros's hedge fund.

As of 2024, the global landscape of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) largely featured the Middle East. Despite not ranking among the largest global State-Owned Investors (SOIs), the Middle East was home to **** of the top ***SWFs worldwide. The ******* SWF was the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, managing assets just shy of *** trillion U.S. dollars. Asia also played a prominent role in the global SWF landscape. ***** of the world's leading SWFs were domiciled in Asia, the ******* of which was the China Investment Corporation. What are sovereign wealth funds? Sovereign wealth funds are state-owned and are comprised of a wide array of financial assets including stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, and other financial instruments. In the main, sovereign wealth funds are funded by foreign-exchange reserves, assets which are held by monetary authorities or central banks in the form of U.S. dollars and other leading world currencies as a way of backing liabilities. Who holds the SWF? A state’s central bank will generally hold the sovereign wealth fund; in the process of its management of a nations funds or banking system funds will be accumulated. These types of state fund are of major economic and fiscal importance, and may be implemented for different objectives: protect the economy against sudden shocks, hedge against the problem of an aging population, or to foster socio-economic development.

A list of the top 50 ARK Investment Management holdings showing which stocks are owned by Cathie Wood's hedge fund.