How Did Soros' Stocks Fare in the Downturn?

The problem hedge funds are experiencing is that they believed their own misconception that they were going to rise every month, regardless of market conditions. The super investors know this is impossible and never delude themselves.

As we did yesterday with Warren Buffett's portfolio, let's take a look at super-investor George Soros' holdings to see how he's done in the downturn since the recent market top on July 19.

The answer? Not so well. I have no idea how his fund has done, but his top 26 holdings were down an average of 8.2% each. This calculation doesn't take into account how he might weight the stocks in his portfolio or how he might trade around them, however. We just want to see how these stocks fared when standing on their own. Of the 26 stocks, six were up during this period and 20 were down.

The six stocks that were up during this time period are mostly smaller-cap names. They are Auxilium Pharmaceuticals(AUXL), Chipotle Mexican Grill(CMG), Barrier Therapeutics(BTRX), CVS Caremark(CVS), Bluefly(BFLY) and Adams Respiratory Therapeutics(ARXT).

I would never have guessed, at the beginning of the period back in July, that these would be the stocks that would end up higher. Barrier Therapeutics, for instance, is a speculative biotech company that develops treatments for various types of dermatitis and for women with too much facial hair. The company posted a wider-than-expected loss of $15.7 million on Aug. 7 and doesn't have much in the way of revenue. However, it also announced some positive results in one of its FDA trials for a psoriasis treatment. Soros is a believer in the stock, so perhaps it's worth a flier. The stock is up 14% since the market top at July 19.