A Cheatcode to Investing? What You Can Learn from Watching Hedge Funds
Ria V Vaghela If you have ever felt completely lost looking at the markets, wondering what to actually buy, you are not alone. Most retail investors I speak to feel the same way. The information is overwhelming, every person says something different, and finance Twitter / Reddit is its own kind of chaos.
Here is something that is well known in finance circles but rarely talked about with retail investors. You can simply look at what the largest institutional funds are holding and use it as a starting point for your own research. The data is public, free, and updated every quarter.
I want to be very clear at the outset. This is not a guaranteed strategy and I am not telling anyone to copy hedge funds blindly. What I am suggesting is a process, a way to bring some structure to your own thinking, especially if you are confused about where to begin. Also note that when I write this article, not all funds quoted below have reported their Q1 2026 holdings and hence there may be discrepency in the data produced below vs. when you read this article.
What Hedge Funds Actually Have to Disclose
In the US, any institutional investor managing more than $100 million has to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They have to do this within 45 days after the end of every quarter, and the filing lists their long equity positions, ETF holdings and certain options exposures.
This means that roughly 45 days after each quarter ends, the public can see what the largest funds in the world were holding on the last day of that quarter.
Websites like hedgefollow.com, whalewisdom.com and 13f.info aggregate this information in a clean, readable format. You can search any major fund and see their top holdings, what they bought, what they sold, and how concentrated their portfolio is.
Why I Call This the Somewhat Smart Money
13F filings have real limitations and it is important to understand them before relying on the data.
First, they are reported with a lag of up to 45 days, so by the time you see the data, the fund may have already changed its position. Second, 13Fs only show long positions in US listed equities and ETFs. They do not show short positions, bonds, currency trades or international holdings. Third, hedge funds use these positions as part of much larger, often hedged strategies that the average retail investor cannot replicate.
So this is not actual smart money in the sense of giving you their full playbook. It is more like seeing the cover of someone’s notebook without reading the contents. Still useful, but not the full picture.
A Snapshot from Q4 2025
To make this practical, here is what four well known institutions were holding at the end of Q4 2025, based on their 13F filings.
| Fund | Reported Portfolio | A Few Notable Holdings |
|---|---|---|
| Jane Street Group | c.$662bn | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Meta Nvidia plus a large iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF position |
| Baillie Gifford & Co | c.$120bn | Nvidia Mercadolibre Amazon Shopify Sea Ltd |
| Point72 Asset Management | c.$89bn | Nvidia Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg Amazon |
| Millennium Management | c.$238bn | iShares Tr Walmart with large iShares Russell 2000 ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust positions |
A few things stand out to me. ETFs feature heavily across all four funds. Jane Street’s largest reported holding was the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), and Millennium’s top positions included the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM). Even firms with reputations for stock picking park significant capital in broad index ETFs.
The other thing worth noticing is how different these four portfolios look. Baillie Gifford runs a long-term, high-conviction growth portfolio, while Jane Street and Millennium run far more diversified, multi-strategy books with thousands of positions. So even the smart money does not agree on what to do.
A Realistic Way to Use This
Here is a simple framework if you want to use 13F data as a starting point.
Begin by picking two or three funds whose investing style genuinely interests you. If you are a long-term thinker, Baillie Gifford may resonate. If you are curious about quant or multi-strategy approaches, Millennium or Point72 are worth following. Track them across a few quarters rather than a single snapshot, because one quarter tells you very little.
Then use this to build a watchlist, not a buy list. If three serious funds are increasing exposure to the same name or ETF, that is a signal worth investigating, not a signal to buy. Ask yourself why they might be doing it, what the company does, and whether it fits your own goals and risk profile.
Finally, accept that ETFs are perfectly valid. The fact that some of the most sophisticated funds in the world hold large positions in plain index ETFs should give retail investors a lot of comfort.
Final Thoughts
The reason I find this approach useful is not because it is a shortcut to outperformance. It is because it gives a confused investor a structured place to start.
You still have to do the work of understanding what you own and why. That ownership of your investing decisions is the part no fund, blog or screen can do for you.
Disclaimer: This article is written purely for educational and informational purposes. It reflects my personal understanding of publicly available information and does not represent the views of my employer. Nothing in this article should be interpreted as financial or investment advice. Investing involves risk. Readers should conduct their own research or consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Sources: 13F.info, HedgeFollow, Stockzoa, Grufity, Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus (Q4 2025 13F filings as of 31 December 2025).
Ria Vaghela
MSc Finance graduate from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Ria V Vaghela is an M&A Associate at RSM UK and an MSc Finance graduate from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She has worked at Jefferies, Dial Partners, GP Bullhound and 7i Capital prior to RSM UK gaining an extensive experience in finance. She has also worked as an Editor and Content Writer for The Representative Media. Apart from finance, she is interested in reading books on philosophy, self-help and economics, likes to paint and play lawn tennis.
