Out of a multitude of institutional investment managers, a small handful have acquired celebrity status for their uncanny market savvy, demonstrating remarkable foresight with their holdings. While it's impossible for us to track the daily movements of their massive portfolios, four times a year, we can sneak a peek, thanks to the SEC's 13F filing regulation.

By law, any institutional investment manager overseeing upwards of $100 million is required to submit a quarterly report of his holdings, making that information accessible to the general public. This gives us an opportunity to see how Wall Street's superstars are positioning their assets and get a sense of the market trends they're betting on.

George Soros is one investing icon whose portfolio certainly warrants a look. The Hungarian-born currency speculator and investor seems to have something of a sixth sense for market movements: In 1992, he made a reported $1 billion off the Black Wednesday U.K. currency crisis, earning himself the unofficial title of "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England." In 2008, he famously, and accurately, predicted that the "superbubble" 25 years in the making was about to pop.

Soros Fund Management's 13F filing reveals that the money management firm continues to bet on gold, even while calling the metal "the ultimate bubble" for the past year. At the end of 2010, the fund held $774 million worth of ETFs that owned gold, about the same as the previous quarter's gold holdings.

In Q3, the fund reduced its position on some gold mining stocks, but Soros held onto its 12.9 million shares of NovaGold Resources (NYSE: NG) in Q4, the same amount owned at the end of the previous quarter.

Soros' fund also purchased over 10 million shares of Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL); worth $186 million, this makes the airline the firm's fifth-largest holding.

Here are the top 10 holdings of Soros Fund Management at the end of 2010. (Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)

Company

Shares Held-09/30/2010

Shares Held-12/31/2010

% Change in Shares Held

% of Portfolio

SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD)

4,697,008

4,721,808

0.53%

13.46%

InterOil (NYSE: IOC)

4,022,422

4,434,022

10.23%

6.56%

Monsanto  (NYSE: MON)

6,522,804

3,291,367

-49.54%

4.71%

Delta Air Lines

3,691,000

14,731,351

299.12%

3.81%

NovaGold Resources

12,905,142

12,905,142

0.00%

3.78%

Plains Exploration & Production Company (NYSE: PXP)

6,781,315

4,717,600

-30.43%

3.11%

Dendreon (Nasdaq: DNDN)

1,816,463

4,198,696

131.15%

3.01%

Emdeon (NYSE: EM)

7,787,218

7,787,218

0.00%

2.86%

Teva Pharmaceutical (Nasdaq: TEVA)

2,444,400

2,526,665

3.37%

2.71%

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)

247,584

304,866

23.14%

2.02%

Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned above. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research. Note: The numbers on top of items represent the forward P/E ratio, if available.


Kapitall's Eben Esterhuizen and Alicia Sellitti do not own shares of any companies mentioned.