Index Put Options Are Everywhere in Wall Street's 13F Fillings

Institutions are reporting their 13F holding in the first quarter of 2025(as of 3/31/25), and they have demonstrated a keen interest in option strategies to hedge with the market uncertainties. We saw index put options everywhere, puts on $SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$  , $Invesco QQQ(QQQ)$   and $iShares Russell 2000 Value ETF(IWN)$   surged up across their portfolios, signaling a downside protection. Tech stocks are still favored, but with lighter exposure to volatile names like $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$   .

Nomura: Option Favored, Increase Long Put on IWM

Nomura's Q1 13F filing shows a notable decline in total holdings value, dropping from $74.1 billion to $53.6 billion, a 28% decrease. Nomura is hedging against small-cap volatility (via puts on $iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM.US)$ ) while trimming tech stocks.

–Put on $iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM.US)$ , Call on $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ and $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ dominated its top holdings.

– It cuts $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ and $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ exposure, including their Put.

Barclays: Betting Big on SPY Puts & Tech Stocks

Barclays cut its total holdings slightly (-1.1%) but made aggressive moves:

– Put on $SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$ remained its top holding ($49B), though it reduced positions by 29%. Despite buying SPY puts, Barclays also added $SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$ shares by 182% and Call on $SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$ by 9%.

– Its holding of Put on $Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.US)$ jumped 75%—a clear hedge against Nasdaq volatility.

– It increased shares of $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ , $Apple (AAPL.US)$ , and $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ , showing faith in big tech's long-term value.

UBS: Cautiously Bullish on Tech with Index Put

UBS maintained a $540 billion portfolio in Q1, with Put on $SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$ and $Ishares Iboxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Etf (HYG.US)$ emerging as its largest buying (by%) in portfolio. UBS added Put on $SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$ by 130% and held major positions in $Apple (AAPL.US)$ , $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ , and $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ .

BofA: Megacap Mania with Hedging by Index Put

BofA’s $1.24 trillion portfolio leaned heavily into tech giants. It boosted $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ by 20%, $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ , and $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ , but also head into Put on $SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$ and $iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM.US)$ for downside protection, which were its two biggest Q1 purchases.

Wall Street are not panicking, and their Q1 options playbook is all about hope for the best, plan for the worst.

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