market folly

Per the French regulatory system, Andreas Halvorsen's hedge fund Viking Global has disclosed a short position in NYSE Euronext (NYX). This disclosure is pursuant to European regulatory measures from back in 2008 regarding short sales in financial institutions.

According to the disclosure, Viking Global is short 2,795,400 shares of NYSE Euronext, representing 1.07% of capital. This position was reported as being held on December 9th, 2010. We recently detailed Viking Global's portfolio in the new issue of our newsletter.

Given that this disclosure was made in France, we'd assume Viking is short the shares of Euronext traded in Paris. NYSE Euronext is traded on American exchanges under ticker NYX as well (the SEC does not require public disclosure of short sales). Combing through other regulatory systems, we've uncovered that Halvorsen's hedge fund has also been short KBC Groep NV (KBC).

Per Google Finance, NYSE Euronext is "a global operator of financial markets and provider of trading strategies. The Company offers an array of products and services in cash equities, futures, options, swaps, exchange-traded products, bonds, market data and commercial technology solutions."

Check out the rest of Viking Global's activity in our newsletter.