market folly

(This post is part of our series on tracking hedge fund portfolios. If you're unfamiliar with tracking investments they disclose via SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund filings.)

Next up is Chase Coleman's hedge fund Tiger Global. Coleman is considered a 'Tiger Seed' because he previously plied his trade under mentor Julian Robertson at legendary fund Tiger Management. He then became one of the many managers Robertson seeded in an effort to recognize up and coming talent. Coleman is also one of the many managers selected to be in the Tiger Cub portfolio created with Alphaclone where you can piggyback the investment ideas of numerous top hedge fund managers (Market Folly readers can receive a free 30-day trial if interested).

The positions listed below were Tiger Global's long equity, note, and options holdings as of March 31st, 2010 as filed with the SEC. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted:


Brand New Positions
Powershares QQQ Trust (QQQQ) Puts
SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) Puts
Electronic Arts (ERTS)
Electronic Arts (ERTS) Calls
Apollo Group (APOL) Calls
Liberty Global (LBTYA) Calls
Nike (NKE)
Genpact (G)
Kraft (KFT)
Liberty Capital (LCAPA)
American Tower (AMT)
Commscope (CTV)
Live Nation (LYV)
Duoyuan (DGW)
Amazon (AMZN)
Lincare Holdings (LNCR)
Shanda Games (GAME)
Madison Square Garden (MSG) ~ spin-off as a result of their stake in Cablevision
Symetra Financial (SYA)
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)


Increased Positions
Western Union (WU): Increased position size by 577%
Liberty Global (LBTYA): Increased by 204.6%
Hewlett Packard (HPQ): Increased by 200%
Apple (AAPL): Increased by 62.2%
Lockheed Martin (LMT): Increased by 45%
Google (GOOG): Increased by 35%
Apollo Group (APOL): Increased by 30%
Mercadolibre (MELI): Increased by 24.6%
Discovery Communications (DISCK): Increased by 23%


Reduced Positions
Yahoo (YHOO): Reduced position size by 79.8%
E*Trade Financial (ETFC): Reduced by 46.7%
Mastercard (MA): Reduced by 35%
Monsanto (MON): Reduced by 34.6%
Transdigm Group (TDG): Reduced by 34.1%
IAC Interactive (IACI): Reduced by 28%
Cablevision (CVC): Reduced by 25.7%


Positions They Sold Out of Completely
Qualcomm (QCOM)
McDonalds (MCD)
IMS Health (RX)
Teradata (TDC)
Ebix (EBIX)
Discovery (DISCA)
Gushan Environmental (GU)


Top 15 Holdings (by percentage of assets reported on 13F filing)

1. Powershares QQQ Trust (QQQQ) Puts: 9.0%

2. Apollo Group (APOL): 8.32%

3. DirecTV (DTV): 7.87%

4. Pepsico (PEP): 5.96%

5. Apollo Group (APOL) Calls: 5.39%

6. Google (GOOG): 4.47%

7. SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) Puts: 4.45%

8. Mercadolibre (MELI): 4.06%

9. Lockheed Martin (LMT): 3.51%

10. Electronic Arts (ERTS) Calls: 3.41%

11. Mastercard (MA): 3.34%

12. Priceline.com (PCLN): 2.93%

13. Apple (AAPL): 2.80%

14. Liberty Global (LBTYA): 2.75%

15. Visa (V): 2.42%

Alright, there's a lot to cover here. The most noteworthy thing to take away from Coleman's portfolio is the fact that in the first quarter he started massive put positions on the Nasdaq-100 (QQQQ) and S&P 500 (SPY). These could merely be hedges, or they could be a directional bet, we don't know. What we do know though, is that these are very sizable positions. These puts are likely already profitable positions for the fund as well (that is, unless for some reasons they purchased the puts at the lows in February, which seems unlikely).

Tiger Global was quite active in options markets in the first quarter as they also started a large new position in Apollo Group calls. This is a complement to their already large position in common stock of the company as well, making it by far one of their biggest company specific bets. Additionally, we point out their large stake in DirecTV (DTV) because in Tiger Global's fourth quarter letter, Coleman indicated that this was one of their highest conviction picks as they believe that DTV will increase leverage to buyback shares and then their cashflow will cover current debt.. Tiger has also built up a sizable long position in Electronic Arts (ERTS) via common shares and calls.

Regarding positions they decreased, Tiger sold nearly 80% of their Yahoo (YHOO) position and almost half of their E*Trade Financial (ETFC) position. While TIger Global added significantly to their Western Union (WU) stake, the position is still not very large in the context of their overall portfolio. Other positions they notably added to in the first quarter include Hewlett Packard and Liberty Global.

Assets reported on the 13F filing were $4.9 billion this quarter. Data from the SEC is aggregated and sorted automatically by Alphaclone, our source for hedge fund tracking, replicating, and performance backtesting (Market Folly readers can receive a special free 30 day trial). Remember that these filings are not representative of the hedge fund's entire base of AUM.

This post is part of our daily hedge fund portfolio tracking series. We've already detailed activity from numerous managers so click the links below to be taken to the respective portfolio updates: Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, and Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Eddie Lampert's RBS Partners, David Tepper's Appaloosa Management, Mohnish Pabrai's Investment Fund, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Bruce Berkowitz's Fairholme Capital Management, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Dan Loeb's Third Point, and John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co. Be sure to check back daily for new hedge fund updates.