"Soros Put" Hits Record As Billionaire's Downside Hedge Rises By 154% in Q4 To $1.3 Billion

A curious finding emerged in the latest 13F by Soros Fund Management, the family office investment vehicle managing the personal wealth of George Soros.

Actually, two curious findings: the first was that the disclosed Assets Under Management as of December 31, 2013 rose to a record $11.8 billion (this excludes netting and margin, and whatever one-time positions Soros may have gotten an SEC exemption to not disclose: for a recent instance of this, see Greenlight Capital's Micron fiasco, and the subsequent lawsuit of Seeking Alpha which led to the breach of David Einhorn's holdings confidentiality).

The second one is that the "Soros put", a legacy hedge position that the 83-year old has been rolling over every quarter since 2010, just rose to a record $1.3 billion or the notional equivalent of some 7.09 million SPY-equivalent shares. Since this was an increase of 154% Q/Q this has some people concerned that the author of 'reflexivity' and the founder of "open societies" may be anticipating some major market downside.

Then again, as the chart below shows, as a percentage of total AUM, the put position rose to 11.1% of his notional holdings. By way of reference, as of June 30 2013, his SPY put may have had a smaller notional value, but it represented both more shares (7.8 million), and was far greater as a % of AUM, at 13.5%.



Finally, remember that what was disclosed on Friday is a snapshot of Soros' holdings as of 45 days ago. What he may or may not have done with his hedge since then is largely unknown, and since there are no investor letters, there is no way of knowing even on a leaked basis how the billionaire has since positioned for the market.

That said, while the SPY puts are most likely simply a hedge to his overall bullish exposure, perhaps more notable was the $25 million call position that Soros put on the gold miners ETF which has been beaten into oblivion over the past year, in the fourth quarter. Does Soros think that it is finally the miners' turn to shine?
Credit to Zero Hedge

Signs Of Coming Tyranny

NSA - Setting The Foundation For A Global Police State?

Is the US National Security Agency (NSA) building the foundation for a global police state?

To answer this question, we need to understand why the NSA exists, what its mandate is, and where it has deviated from its operational boundaries. There are 3 core elements to this analysis: The NSA’s purpose, powers and performance. Let’s examine each of these 3 P’s:

The Purpose of the NSA:

In an article titled “How the NSA's Domestic Spying Program Works” written for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), the formation of the NSA is summarized as follows:

“The NSA’s domestic spying program, known in official government documents as the “President’s Surveillance Program,” ("The Program") was implemented by President George W. Bush shortly after the attacks on September 11, 2001. The US Government still considers the Program officially classified, but a tremendous amount of information has been exposed by various whistleblowers, admitted to by government officials during Congressional hearings and with public statements, and reported on in investigations by major newspapers across the country…In the weeks after 9/11, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct a range of surveillance activities inside the United States, which had been barred by law and agency policy for decades.

When the NSA’s spying program was first exposed by the New York Times in 2005, President Bush admitted to a small aspect of the program—what the administration labeled the “Terrorist Surveillance Program”—in which the NSA monitored, without warrants, the communications of between 500-1000 people inside the US with suspected connections to Al Qaeda.”

The Powers of the NSA:

R.T.com, in its analysis titled “NSA spying is just the beginning, a far greater threat lies ahead” the following points are brought out:

1. The ability to continuously gather all types of digital data on political leaders, economic institutions, and hundreds of millions of people around the world. These would include:

· Details of every American’s call history: In addition to actual recorded calls and “customers' names, street addresses, and other personal information.”

· Real Time Access to Phone and Internet Traffic via telecommunications companies also allows NSA to install sophisticated communications surveillance equipment in secret rooms at key telecommunications facilities around the country.

2. Unrestricted information technology (IT) power from the US government. This capability increases with advances in microchip storage capacities that seem to increase exponentially over time. The NSA has already anticipated this development by constructing a gigantic new center in the US state of Utah to house unimaginable amounts of data at an estimated cost of 3.5 to 4 billion US dollars.

3. Capacity to globally locate and potentially eliminate human targets using unmanned drones and other similar types of expanding technology. Rt.com states: “Building backdoors and hacking - methods beloved by the NSA - into the chips, software, and network connections of this 'world of things' would turn everyday objects into potential drones that can be activated remotely or detonated.

4. NSA has access to the emerging realm of augmented reality technologies. Rt.com explains: “Augmented reality involves looking at a real-world environment through an IT-enhanced pair of glasses which simultaneously display the real world and some digital content such as images, pictures, text, video, or whatever. Moreover, these glasses are connected wirelessly to the internet, so the augmented realities can be shared.

To cite a very simple example, you might be looking at a real world table, but seeing flowers on the table that aren't there. And you might be seeing and talking to people at the table who are actually in another place…. Bear in mind the recent revelation that the NSA has already infiltrated false 'avatars' and engaged in other covert activity in World of Warcraft and Second Life, two of the most popular multi-player computer game systems, in which users immerse into a 'virtual world.’…what's next?

The logical step beyond the glasses is apt to be something like augmented reality operating through contact lenses, followed after that by augmented reality operating through actual visual and auditory implants behind the eyes and ears, thereby creating real world ‘augmented humans.’ Such technology might greatly increase the capabilities and even intelligence of users. But it also has a dystopian potential for unprecedented state spying and interference.”

5. IT-enabled 'security’ - whether controlled by the NSA or something else - will increasingly be used for more illegal and unconstitutional surveillance and control of the population.

The Performance of the NSA:

To accurately ascertain whether the NSA is evolving into the architecture of a Global Police State, one needs to look at some key deviations from its standard mandates as summarized from several media sources, based on the Snowden revelations and other sources:

· Access to details of every American’s call history and real time access to phone and Internet traffic is reported to have been done “without a warrant in violation of federal law and the Constitution.”

· Through the NSA, the government has the ability to “read emails, texts, phone logs, track location and movements, snoop and collect information about individuals through smart phone apps, read g-chats and look at private photos.” All of this without proper disclosure and authorization.

· NSA argues that its employees only carried out the actions necessary to find terrorists and protect the U.S, but evidence of this is yet to be made public.

· There are concerns that The Fourth Amendment rights of Americans have been breached (The Fourth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause). It is alleged that, through massive data searches rather than selected or targeted ones, innocent people have their constitutional privacy rights compromised unnecessarily.

· The NSA has been accused of exploiting legal loopholes where technology has moved faster than the law to act un-constitutionally.

Although the Snowden revelations have prompted investigations and instituted some corrective measures, the fact that the NSA violations took place in a clandestine manner suggests that there could be much more than meets the eye.

Which is why NSA actions are still reminiscent of that of the Russian K.G.B. and German Gestapo days – great models for a global police type state. Don’t wait for it to end completely though; it’s more likely that the threat of terrorism will always provide more than enough leverage for authorities to exceed their boundaries around privacy.

It looks like Big Brother will still be watching us for a long time to come.


Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February17/173.html#wBbJXZWOz450jfk6.99

Soros doubles a bearish bet on the S&P 500, to the tune of $1.3 billion: Headed For a Fall

Soros Fund Management has doubled up a bet that the S&P 500 SPX is headed for a fall.

Within Friday’s 13F filings news was the revelation that the firm, founded by legendary investor George Soros, increased a put position on the S&P 500 ETF SPY by a whopping 154% in the fourth quarter, compared with the third. (A put or short position basically gives the owner the right to sell a security at a set price for a limited time, and in making such a bet, an investor generally believes the security is going to decline.)

The value of that holding, the biggest position in the fund, has risen to $1.3 billion from around $470 million. It now makes up a 11.13% chunk of all reported holdings. It had been cut to 5.14% in the third quarter, from 13.54% in the second quarter, which itself marked another dramatic lift on the bearish call. The numbers can be found at Whalewisdom.com, which makes them slightly easier to digest than the actual SEC filing.

Writing on the Bullion Baron blog, Joseph has been quick to alert readers to the hedge fund’s bets on the S&P 500, offering up a summary of changes to that call from mid-2011 onward. For the four quarters of 2013, that short has followed a pattern of big highs and big lows.
Bullionbaron.com

Of course, Joseph said, the bearish S&P call could be a hedge and, as it’s six weeks into the next reporting period, it may have already been reduced or increased. But he said it could also be indicative of jitters: In January, Soros highlighted risks coming out of China and drew a comparison with the lead-up to the crash of 2008.


“It’s possible that the SPY puts are just a hedge, weighed against other long positions he holds in specific stocks. However, the views he expressed in this article lead me to believe he thinks another crisis is brewing (led by China on this occasion) and the SPY put position could be an attempt profit from it,” says Joseph.

The second- and third-biggest positions in the 13F were a fresh put on the Energy Select Sector SPDR fund and a big jump in holds of Israeli pharmaceutical maker Teva TEVA . Read about more changes in Soros’s quarterly holdings here.

Soros and his hedge fund aren’t alone if they’re feeling unease at the bull run for markets. It’s been roughly 28 months since a substantial correction for the S&P 500, which is down 0.5% for the year after having endured a pullback earlier this month, triggered in part by jitters over emerging markets. Strategists have been debatingabout when and how the correction is going to happen.

As for whether investors should ape the 13F followings of others, MarketWatch’s Bill Watts pointed out last week that the 45-day lag in the holdings is particularly tricky when it comes to calls like a huge bearish bet on the S&P 500. And he found that while hedge funds outperform on the upside, they do far worse on the downside.

It was Soros himself who famously once said: “I rely a great deal on animal instincts.” And as we all know, George’s made some big, crazy, winning bets in the past.

Credit to breaking Deception

Towns stranded after snowstorm hits eastern Japan, 19 dead

At least 19 people died after a weekend snowstorm in eastern Japan damaged buildings, stranded thousands of train passengers and motorists and cut off supply routes for entire communities, according to reports.

Some roads have been cleared and shelters set up, but the problems are so dire in some areas that members of the Self-Defense Forces have been dispatched to deal with the snow.

The weight of the snow led to the collapse of a connecting corridor, a garage and other structures in Gunma Prefecture, killing seven people.

In Saitama Prefecture, two people died on the morning of Feb. 15 after they were buried under a fallen roof.

The Yamanashi prefecture government on Feb. 15 reported the deaths of two people who apparently froze while trying to walk home after their cars became stuck in the snow.

About 800 households in Marumori, Miyagi Prefecture, were stranded after fallen trees blocked roads into the town. SDF personnel on Feb. 17 were clearing the routes.

The SDF is also providing relief work in the Subashiri district of Oyama, Shizuoka Prefecture.

In western Tokyo, all 2,460 residents in Hinohara were temporarily isolated after roads to the village were closed on the night of Feb. 14.

Many sections on expressways were also shut down, halting traffic and disrupting the distribution of supplies.

The Tomei Expressway was closed in the early hours of Feb. 15 but became passable again at 10 p.m. on Feb. 16 following progress in snow removal.

According to Central Nippon Expressway Co., about 400 vehicles were stuck in deep snow on a section of the Central Expressway in Otsuki, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Feb. 15.

At the Usui bypass on National Route No. 18, which links the western part of Gunma Prefecture and Nagano Prefecture, about 250 vehicles were trapped. As of 9 a.m. on Feb. 17, about 70 of the motorists had taken refuge at six evacuation centers set up in Annaka, Gunma Prefecture.

One of them was a 60-year-old from Suzaka, Nagano Prefecture, who got caught in the snowstorm after visiting Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, on business.

He spent two nights in his car before heading to an evacuation center on the morning of Feb. 17.

“I am supposed to go to work from today, but I don’t know when I can return to the office,” he said. “I am tired due to lack of sleep.”

In Hayakawa in southwestern Yamanashi Prefecture, about 670 households remained cut off from supplies as of the morning of Feb. 17. The only road leading to the town was closed three days ago.

The town has requested help from the SDF.

“I have been unable to go out to buy food since Feb. 14,” said a 23-year-old female worker at the town hall. “I have only a day or two worth of supplies left.”

Half of the town’s population is 65 years old or older.

Credit to Asashi Simbun

Chase Imposes New Capital Controls on Cash Deposits

Customers have to show ID, can no longer deposit cash into another person’s account.

JPMorgan Chase has irked its customers by imposing new capital controls that mandate identification for cash deposits and ban cash being deposited into another person’s account.

Air Force veteran Kristen Meghan received a letter from Chase informing her of “changes in how we accept cash deposits.”

“When making a cash deposit please; be ready to show a valid ID – deposit only into accounts that list your name,” states the letter.

The move is another example of how banks are becoming increasingly invasive and restrictive with how they treat their customers, while crypto-currency alternatives like Bitcoin offer total anonymity.

According to Meghan, when she asked a Chase bank teller why cash deposits couldn’t be made into another person’s account, she was told that the new regulation was imposed by government request.

According to Fox Business, Chase is “the first big bank to enact such a change.” Customers are already being asked for ID as of February 1, while cash deposits into accounts bearing someone else’s name will be banned from March 3 onwards.

Chase claims it is imposing the changes to prevent money laundering, although the policy is likely to cause massive inconvenience for families, such as parents who wish to deposit cash in accounts belonging to children who are away at college.

Representatives from Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo did not respond to questions on whether they would also be looking to impose the same rules.

Some analysts have speculated that such measures are a sign that banks are preparing for economic turmoil and potential bank runs. Last year it was reported that two of the biggest banks in America were stuffing their ATMs with 20-30 per cent more cash than usual in order to head off a potential bank run if the U.S. defaults on its debt.
This is by no means the first example of Chase imposing capital controls on their customers’ accounts.

In October last year, we reported on how Chase instituted policy changes which banned international wire transfers while restricting cash activity for business customers (both deposits and withdrawals) to a $50,000 limit per statement cycle.

The bank’s reputation was already under scrutiny after an incident last year when Chase Bank customers across the country attempted to withdraw cash from ATMs only to see that their account balance had been reduced to zero. The problem, which Chase attributed to a technical glitch, lasted for hours before it was fixed, prompting panic from some customers.

Other banks have also imposed capital controls in recent months, including HSBC, which is preventing customers from withdrawing larger amounts of money without written documentation proving how it is to be used.

Credit to Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com

George Soros Openly Discusses The Coming New World Order