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Who is buying protection

Which large funds are carrying serious downside protection, and which are leaning the other way?

What we found

One fund in our set discloses over $200bn of notional put exposure. Several large multi-strategy funds carry substantially more puts than calls, which is a posture, not a trade.

Figure

Disclosed put exposure

CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$216.9bnMILLENNIUM MANAGEME…$67.6bnTUDOR INVESTMENT CO…$21.5bnD. E. Shaw & Co., I…$19.1bnPoint72 Asset Manag…$9bnMARSHALL WACE, LLP$5.1bnElliott Investment …$4bnTWO SIGMA INVESTMEN…$1.8bnSOROS FUND MANAGEME…$1.7bnCHECK CAPITAL MANAG…$0bn

Computed live from our database when you loaded this page. Nothing here is hand-typed, so nothing here can go stale.

FundPutsCallsPut lines
CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$216.9bn$247.8bn2,943
MILLENNIUM MANAGEMENT LLC$67.6bn$34bn675
TUDOR INVESTMENT CORP ET AL$21.5bn$13.3bn916
D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.$19.1bn$18.8bn544
Point72 Asset Management, L.P.$9bn$10.8bn732
MARSHALL WACE, LLP$5.1bn$1.7bn217
Elliott Investment Management L.P.$4bn$0.2bn12
TWO SIGMA INVESTMENTS, LP$1.8bn$1.5bn407
SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT LLC$1.7bn$0.1bn6
CHECK CAPITAL MANAGEMENT INC/CA-$1.8bn0

Live from our database. 10 rows shown.

How we computed it
  • Sum of the reported value of positions flagged as puts and calls in the Q1 2026 filings, by fund.
  • Funds with under $1bn of total options exposure are excluded.
What this CANNOT tell you
  • This is the single most easily misread table on the site. A 13F reports the NOTIONAL value of an option position, not the premium paid or the actual risk taken. A large put line can be a hedge, a spread, a market-making inventory, or one leg of something far more complicated.
  • A fund with enormous puts is not necessarily bearish. Citadel is a market maker: it takes the other side of what clients want, and its book reflects their positioning as much as its own.
  • Do not read this as a forecast. Read it as evidence that the largest institutions hedge, extensively, and that anyone telling you they are 'all in' has not read a filing.
Citation

Free to quote, chart or republish with attribution. Cite as: SteadyShares, Who is buying protection, https://steadyshares.com/research/who-is-buying-protection. If you are a journalist and want the underlying query or a different cut of the data, ask and we will run it.

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Educational information, not financial advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. A late regulatory filing is a paperwork failure and nothing more: we make no allegation of wrongdoing against any person named on this page.