Hedge Fund Manager Tudor Scooped Up Financial ETF

tlydon@globaltrend.com (Tom Lydon)

The hedge fund run by noted manager Paul Tudor Jones bought shares of an ETF that invests in U.S. financial stocks in the first quarter, according to a filing.

“Tudor purchased 8.66 million shares of the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF - News), making the ETF its biggest U.S. stock holding as of March 31,” Bloomberg News reported.

More hedge funds are tapping liquid ETFs to make bets on entire sectors rather than picking individual companies. [Institutional Investors Favor ETFs]

XLF, the financial ETF, holds total assets of $5.6 billion, according to manager State Street Global Advisors.

The sector fund was off 1% on Wednesday afternoon to $14.30 a share, down from the March high of about $16. Bank stocks have been hit by the latest Greek-related debt concerns in Europe and an unexpected trading loss from JP Morgan (JPM - News). [Financial ETF Pares Decline After JP Morgan Loss]

XLF rose 21.9% in the first quarter, outperforming the 12.6% gain posted by iShares S&P 500 (IVV - News) , according to Morningstar. However, the financial ETF is dropping below its 200-day exponential moving average for the first time in about four months.

Tudor also purchased 238,000 shares of Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX - News) in the first quarter, according to the Bloomberg story. [Junior Gold Miner ETF Hits All-Time Low]

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund