Special Feature
PAULSON PORTFOLIO LOSSES In just two sessions alone in April it was estimated that Paulson lost more than $500 million — over half of this year’s accumulated losses on two holdings — Anglogold and the SPDR. It is, of course, possible that Paulson changed his mind during 1Q 2013 and sold Anglogold and the SPDR Gold fund, but that’s unlikely. We estimate his losses on those two assets alone of over $1bn so far this year. We have only analysed his top 10 holdings, but, given that it represents more than 50% of his portfolio, it is enough for our purposes to estimate his accumulated profits and losses for the year. Highlighting Paulson’s loss may seem unfair as he does have some nice profits accumulated on Life Technologies and Sprint.
22 | www.financial-spread-betting.com | May 2013
In fact, he is in the green on 7 out of 10 of his top holdings. But the problem relates to risk management. The call on gold is simply too large and may undermine risk management as we see in the above chart evaluating the effects of the gold crash. Paulson has simply lost too much over just two days. 2013 is shaping up to be his 3rd consecutive annus horribilus — largely due to his “all in” bet on gold.