Hedge funds pile up record short bets against stocks as traders go into ‘self-protection mode’
Hedge funds loaded up on a record number of short bets against stocks as President Donald Trump’s steeper-than-expected tariffs wreaked havoc on Wall Street, according to Goldman Sachs’ prime brokerage data. Fast-money professional traders made their largest-ever, one-day net sales of global equities last week through Thursday, the day after Trump rolled out his sweeping levies, said Goldman, which has been collecting the data since 2010. “Liberation Day was a knock-down, drag-out affair — there was a harshness that surprised even the most hawkish people I know,” Tony Pasquariello, head of hedge fund client coverage at Goldman said in a note to clients. Hedge funds rapidly added protection as fears grew that Trump had set off a global trade war that will lead to a recession. Trump’s policy could effectively raise the U.S. tariffs rate from 2.5% to well past 20%, the highest level since 1910 — higher even than the devastating Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930 that many economists see as contributing to the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered back-to-back 1,500-point losses last Thursday and Friday for the first time ever in its 129-year history. The S & P 500 plunged 10% in those two days. .DJI 5D mountain Dow Jones Industrial Average Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller made a rare comment over the weekend, reiterating his opposition to tariffs above 10%. Leon Cooperman , another billionaire investor, said the bottom is not in yet and stocks are set to continue their downward spiral. The chair and CEO of the Omega Family Office believes Trump’s tariffs are a “mistake” and will tip the U.S. economy into a recession. Nine of 11 investment sectors in the S & P 500 were net sold last week, led by financials, technology and consumer discretionary stocks, Goldman said. The selling in financials came at the fastest pace since January 2021 and the second fastest pace on record, the Wall Street investment bank said. “Lower prices drew out huge selling from many corners of our franchise; as one of the great traders of all time put it: ‘people are just getting into self-protection mode,'” Pasquariello said. Pasquariello noted the increased probability of “indiscriminate, short-cycle rips” higher in prices that can happen when there is a massive number of short positions. That was evidenced Monday , when stocks seesawed dramatically in reaction to headlines covering the Trump administration’s shifting trade policy.
