• The billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller told an audience Monday night that the hedge fund industry would continue to contract and that fees would continue to shrink because there were only "five to 10" people worth paying premium fees for.
• Druckenmiller, who converted his hedge fund into a family office in 2010, said there should be only "200 or 300" in existence.
• For more stories like this, visit Business Insider's homepage.

In Stanley Druckenmiller's mind, only five to 10 people are worth the fees hedge funds charge — and the problem is that there are thousands of hedge funds run by people who aren't among them.

Speaking with an audience at an event Monday night at the University Club hosted by The Economic Club of New York, Druckenmiller said the industry originally had "eight to 10 savant superstars in the '70s and '80s" who charged "Rolls-Royce fees" and were worth it.

But then thousands of imitators followed them, said Druckenmiller, who made his money betting big on currencies while working as a portfolio manager for George Soros in the 1990s. He founded his own hedge fund, Duquesne Capital Management, and ran it for decades before converting to a family office in 2010.

"We need to get back to like 200 or 300" funds, he said. The industry is now worth more than $3 trillion with more than 7,000 funds globally, according to Hedge Fund Research.

The hedge fund industry, despite a great start performance-wise to 2019, has struggled with margin pressure. Fees are dropping and fewer money managers are deciding to launch their own, while industry titans like the billionaire David Tepper bow out of the space.

Read more: Inside the hellacious hedge fund money-raising environment, where 'even the big funds have to get creative'

But Druckenmiller believes the best can still charge high fees because they have proved to be worth it. D.E. Shaw reportedly is raising fees to 3% management fees and 30% performance fees, while the industry averages drop to half of those figures.

Druckenmiller also told the audience he was skeptical of President Donald Trump's reelection chances, unless "one of the crazies" wins the Democratic nomination. He later specified Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren as the two Democrats he thought would give Trump the best chance of winning in 2020.

Druckenmiller is a Republican, and he donated to former Gov. John Kasich of Ohio before the 2016 election, not Trump, whose trade policies he repeatedly questioned Monday night. Donor records show that Druckenmiller gave more than $100,000 to Republicans for the 2018 midterms despite his disagreement with some of Trump's policies.

Read more: The biggest names in the hedge fund industry gave tens of millions to both parties in the 2018 midterms — here are the top donors

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NOW WATCH: WATCH: The legendary economist who predicted the housing crisis says the US will win the trade war

• "By far the best economic predictor I've ever met is the inside of the stock market," said billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller on Monday.
• He identified three areas of the market that concern him right now.
• Druckenmiller also offered two trading recommendations to hedge against a meltdown, including Treasuries, "the best game in town."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When it comes to predicting what's in store for the economy, macroeconomic data itself is not great.

That's according to billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller, who said he learned this despite dropping out of a doctorate in economics program at the University of Michigan. He went on to make a fortune by accurately predicting the economy's booms and busts. 

"By far the best economic predictor I've ever met is the inside of the stock market," Druckenmiller said Monday at an event hosted by the Economic Club of New York. 

He was referring to companies and industries that are so tethered to the cycle that they provide a reliable lead on where the rest of the economy is headed. He named trucking and retailers as being among the select few. 

He then went on to pinpoint three areas within the market that concern him right now:

• The SPDR S&P Retail exchange-traded fund is down 21% from its August high.
• The S&P Metals and Mining index is also down by more than 20% from its high, and 
• The Russell 2000, which captures a wide breadth of small-cap companies, is down 14% from its peak. 

Druckenmiller threw in a fourth element that goes beyond stock-market internals but also has him convinced that now is not the time to be betting heavily on risky assets. Corporate profits, including those filed by private companies for tax purposes, fell in the first quarter for a second straight period as the initial boost of tax reform faded and the trade war intensified. 

"I've never seen a recession before corporate profits peaked," Druckenmiller said. "It turns out corporate profits looked pretty bad in the first quarter: they were down. And if you look at margins, labor, tariffs, everything else going on, it's inconceivable to me that that wasn't the peak in corporate profits."

He added: "It's not saying we're going to be in a recession, but it's saying you better be careful and keep your eyes open."

Read more:Here's why experts are worried that Trump's trade war could trap the US economy in a downward recessionary spiral unlike most they've witnessed

What does keeping one's eyes open look like in practice? Druckenmiller found out while golfing a few Sundays ago. 

He said he was hitting the links when President Donald Trump tweeted on May 5 that the US would raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

Druckenmiller, like most investors, was caught off guard by this tweet that sunk global stock markets in the following days. But he acted quickly and rushed into the safety of the bond market. 

"When the Trump tweet went out, I went from 93% invested to net flat, and bought a bunch of Treasuries," Druckenmiller said. "Not because I'm trying to make money, I just don't want to play in this environment."

This trade turned out to be hugely prescient and profitable. Since the May 5 tweet, bond prices have surged and the yield on the benchmark 10-year note has slumped nearly 400 basis points to its lowest level since 2007. 

Given the bond market's big move, he said Treasuries are no longer as interesting a trade as they were a few weeks ago. But he added: "If you believe the economy is going to deteriorate, they're the best game in town. Gold's not bad either."

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• Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller warns that the US is on course to lose to China on trade and in the technological cold war. 
• He says the Trump administration's approaches to tariffs and big-tech regulation are giving China the upper hand. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump once declared, via his Twitter account, that trade wars are "good, and easy to win."

That was more than a year ago. Since then, he has escalated the trade dispute with China, threatened a new one with Mexico, and heightened the risk of an economic recession. 

So maybe trade wars are neither good nor easy to win. Stanley Druckenmiller, the billionaire investor and founder of Duquesne Capital, is among those who disagree with Trump.

"I will go to my grave — you're not going to tell me that protectionism is as good as free trade," he said at a recent event hosted by the Economic Club of New York. "I just don't believe it."

Be it a financial or technological conflict between the world's two largest economies, Druckenmiller sees no path to victory for the US it continues on its current trajectory.  

He realized the losing strategy after observing how Trump was waging his trade war. Trump wants to run on tariffs in 2020 and thinks it's a winning formula for the swing states he needs to secure a second term, Druckenmiller said. In turn, this means he's unlikely to budge on giving China's Xi Jinping a real deal. 

Read more: Investing legend Stanley Druckenmiller reveals why the 'best economic predictor' has him worried about the next crisis — and breaks down where you should be putting your money

Another event that cemented Druckenmiller's view of US-China relations was Trump's weekend tweet threatening to slap tariffs on Mexico. While there's a real immigration issue, Mexico has cooperated with the Trump administration's reconstitution of the North America Free Trade Agreement, Druckenmiller said.

"To me, Xi Jinping and the hardliners just got a very, very big gift from Donald Trump doing what he did to Mexico," he said. 

And that's not all. Trump's approach to the so-called tech cold war between both countries will also hand China a win in the long run, according to Druckenmiller.

His issue lies with how both countries are regulating their technology giants.

"The minute this trade stuff started happening last fall, they started easing up on their private sector, particularly Tencent and Alibaba," Druckenmiller said.

He added: "They're huge supporters of Huawei. They're oiling their whole tech machine. What are we doing? We're saving steel, coal, aluminum — they're really the future here guys. And what are we doing with our leading tech companies? We're throwing sand in the gears and making their lives miserable."

He decried critics of American tech giants like Alphabet who say that they're anti-competitive and harming consumers. Alphabet has already been probed and fined by European regulators, but the Department of Justice is reportedly gearing up for its own antitrust investigations.  

"I am not a nationalist," Druckenmiller said. "But if we're going to be in some kind of conflict, it's going to be fought among the big tech companies. We're going to get rolled."

SEE ALSO: A duo of stock pickers crushing 96% of their peers unpack their tactics for finding companies that customers can't live without — and reveal their top picks

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• New regulatory filings posted Thursday detail the biggest stock purchases and sales from billionaire fund managers in the third quarter.
• Investors including Stanley Druckenmiller, Carl Icahn, and Chase Coleman made significant changes to their multibillion-dollar portfolios. Druckenmiller sold more than 2 million shares of Uber in the third quarter. 
• The hottest buys were well-known tech stocks — e.g., Amazon and Netflix — that have been beloved by these investors for years. Chase Coleman's Tiger Global increased its bet on Alibaba as well.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Competitors, analysts, journalists, and more all just got their quarterly peek inside the stock portfolios of the biggest fund managers in the world.

Secretive funds like Chase Coleman's Tiger Global revealed the changes they made to their holdings in the third quarter, and some of the biggest names were very active.

The billionaire Carl Icahn sold off some of his third-biggest holding, Occidental Petroleum, which is trading at a low for the year, filings showed on Thursday. Stanley Druckenmiller's family office ditched almost all of its Uber stake, selling more than 2 million shares in the quarter.

Continue reading to see some of the biggest moves from the biggest managers.

Stanley Druckenmiller dumps Uber

The most recent headline of a prominent investor dumping the ride-hailing giant came from the company cofounder Travis Kalanick selling more than $700 million worth of stock.

But the billionaire fund manager Druckenmiller actually sold a majority of his stake before Kalanick made his move.

Filings show that Druckenmiller's family office owned just under 2.7 million shares, worth roughly $125 million, at the end of the second quarter. The latest filings show that he now owns only 166,882 shares, which the firm valued at roughly $5.1 million.

Druckenmiller also sold more than a million shares of Microsoft, which is his family office's biggest holding, and half of his Alibaba stake, which was worth $175 million at the end of the second quarter.

Tiger Global is a fan of Alibaba

The billionaire Chase Coleman of Tiger Global is known for his tech prowess, and he made a big bet on Alibaba, which has seen its stock price bounce up and down all year. 

The fund nearly doubled its stake in the Chinese company in the third quarter, buying more than 3 million shares. Its stake was worth $1.3 billion at the end of the third quarter and was its fifth-biggest holding.

The firm continued to add to its large Facebook stake in the quarter as well, buying more than 2 million shares.

Paul Tudor Jones' Allergan bet

After surviving the activism of one billionaire fund manager, Allergan was an attractive investment for another in the third quarter.

David Tepper tried to force the drugmaker to split the CEO and chairman roles for more than a year, and the company announced it would explore that when its current CEO and chairman, Brent Saunders, left the position. Jones has now piled into the stock, which has struggled in recent years.

Jones nearly doubled his stake in the drugmaker, and he owned just under $95 million worth of stock in the company at the end of the third quarter.

D1's Daniel Sundheim still loves Netflix

The former Viking Global investment chief Daniel Sundheim told conference attendees in May that he loved Netflix. His portfolio shows he walked the walk.

Sundheim, who runs the nearly $8 billion D1 Capital, added a million more Netflix shares in the third quarter. His total stake was worth $988 million at the end of the quarter.

He also plowed in Amazon, roughly sextupling his stake, from 66,500 shares at the end of the second quarter to more than 411,000 shares.

Carl Icahn chipping away at his Occidental Petroleum stake

The billionaire investor Icahn shed a chunk of one of his biggest holdings in the third quarter.

Occidental Petroleum, which is now trading at the lowest price it has all year, made up 7% of Icahn's multibillion-dollar portfolio at the end of the second quarter, filings show, but he dumped more than 7 million shares of the energy company in the third quarter.

His stake was worth $1.1 billion as of the end of the quarter.

• Several countries implemented negative interest rates to boost their economies in 2019, but the billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday that the policy tools interfered with the US's economic balance.
• Druckenmiller called negative rates "the most anti-capitalist idea I could ever dream up," adding that "the financial crisis happened because of bubbles created by easy money."
• The former hedge-fund manager also critiqued President Donald Trump's trade-war policies, accusing the administration of cherry-picking the firms that have to pay tariffs and those that are exempt.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Negative interest rates surged in popularity through 2019 as central banks worked to curb economic recession, but the billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller thinks they're a scourge to money managers.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for negative rates in the US, most recently tweeting that it "would be sooo great" if the Federal Reserve further cut its benchmark interest rate.

Druckenmiller rebuked the claim, saying in a Bloomberg TV interview on Wednesday that he believes the Great Recession was fueled by cheap borrowing costs and that negative rates would harm US markets.

"I will go to my grave believing that the financial crisis happened because of bubbles created by easy money," the former hedge-fund manager said. "And then this crazy president saying we need negative rates to compete with negative rates in countries where they clearly aren't working."

He added: "It's the most anti-capitalist idea I could ever dream up."

Read more:14 top Wall Street experts unveil their stock-market forecasts for 2020 — and tell you where to put your money

Negative interest rates encourage consumer spending by putting a price on savings deposits. Positive rates pay depositors in monthly interest, and negative rates oblige account holders to pay a monthly fee for their savings. The policy tool was initially used in short bouts to drive economic recovery, but more nations have sustained negative rates in bids to prop up economic growth.

The Fed lowered its rate three times in the second half of 2019, the first rate cuts since the financial crisis. While the central bank's actions helped boost US stocks to records through the end of the year, Druckenmiller said the policy complicated previously simple investments.

He told Bloomberg TV that the Fed had now moved too far in easing the interest rate and should now begin raising it as uncertainty from Brexit and the US-China trade war fades.

"This administration, with wondering about where the hell the next bomb is coming from, just doesn't allow me to take some of the positions I've taken historically where I just thought it was a one-way bet," the billionaire said.

Druckenmiller has a history of disagreeing with the Fed. He called for the bank to pause its rate hikes in a Wall Street Journal column last December, and he profited from his bet that the Fed would begin rate cuts this year.

The billionaire investor also railed against Trump's trade-war actions, accusing the administration of picking favorites with its tariff exemptions. While the "phase one" deal between the US and China should prevent further trade-war escalations, Druckenmiller said the handling of existing tariffs still interfered with capitalism.

"When you have a president of the United States who puts hundreds of billions in tariffs and then goes and picks and chooses individual economic actors who pay those tariffs and those who don't, it might as well be the politburo," Druckenmiller told Bloomberg.

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• The legendary investor Stanley Druckenmiller said in a Tuesday webcast to members of the Economic Club of New York that risk-reward for equity was the worst he'd seen in his career.
• "The consensus seems to be 'don't worry, the Fed has your back,'" Druckenmiller said. "There's only one problem with that: Our analysis says it's not true."
• He said he also worried that a V-shaped recovery from the coronavirus pandemic was "a fantasy."
• Read more on Business Insider.

Stanley Druckenmiller, the legendary investor and former George Soros chief strategist, said in a Tuesday webcast to members of the Economic Club of New York that the stock market was overvalued.

"The risk-reward for equity is maybe as bad as I've seen it in my career," Druckenmiller said, according to the Economic Club's Twitter account. "The wild card here is the Fed can always step up their [asset] purchases."

He said he also worried that the government's stimulus programs wouldn't be enough to solve the economic problems arising from the coronavirus pandemic and sweeping lockdowns to curb the spread of the disease.

"The consensus seems to be 'don't worry, the Fed has your back,'"Druckenmiller said. "There's only one problem with that: Our analysis says it's not true."

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Instead, markets seem to be too high, considering the uncertainty of the environment and likely bankruptcies on the horizon, according to Druckenmiller.

"I pray I'm wrong on this, but I just think that the V-out is a fantasy," he said, referring to a V-shaped economic recovery, according to Bloomberg.

Stocks have rebounded after the fastest plunge ever into bear-market territory in March, spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is back in positive territory for the year, and the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 are not far behind.

Read more:Bill Miller's record-setting fund beat the market for 15 straight years. He explains why he's still bullish on airlines, even after Warren Buffett abandoned the industry twice.

The market momentum came as the Federal Reserve unleashed unprecedented action via trillions of dollars in stimulus funds. But that won't help the economy recover, Druckenmiller said.

"It was basically a combination of transfer payments to individuals, basically paying them more not to work than to work," he said. "And in addition to that, it was a bunch of payments to zombie companies to keep them alive."

Druckenmiller also said he thought markets were overreacting to optimism about drugs such as Gilead's remdesivir.

"I don't see why anybody would change their behavior because there's a viral drug out there,"he said.

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• Wealthy investors could be using media platforms to intentionally push markets down for their own benefit, President Donald Trump said in a Wednesday tweet.
• "When the so-called 'rich guys' speak negatively about the market, you must always remember that some are betting big against it, and make a lot of money if it goes down," he wrote.
• Though it's unclear if the president was referring to a specific commentator, several have spoken out to warn of future declines. Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman caught flak in mid-March after projecting a gloomy downturn over a 30-minute CNBC appearance. 
• More recently, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller deemed the current stock market backdrop the worst risk-reward profile he'd seen in his career.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Some prominent investors using media platforms to warn of a stock market crash are doing so to pad their short positions, President Donald Trump alleged in a Wednesday tweet.

"When the so-called 'rich guys' speak negatively about the market, you must always remember that some are betting big against it, and make a lot of money if it goes down," the president wrote. "Then they go positive, get big publicity, and make it going up."

He continued: "They get you both ways. Barely legal?"

While short-selling remains a legal practice, banning it is not unheard of. Shorting of financial stocks was temporarily halted in September 2008 as the financial crisis reached its peak. Several European nations including Italy, Spain, and France instituted similar policies in the wake of coronavirus-driven sell-offs.

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Such bans have been criticized for escalating market chaos in already turbulent times. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton said on March 30 the agency shouldn't use such policies, as they interfere with free-market dynamics.

"You need to be able to be on the short side of the market in order to facilitate ordinary market trading," he said in an interview with CNBC.

It's unclear which high-profile market commentators the president may have been targeting in his morning tweet, but several fit the description. Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman made waves in late March after turning a $27 million credit-protection bet into $2.6 billion as the financial sector was slammed by coronavirus fears.

Before mentioning the windfall to his clients, the fund manager made a passionate, 30-minute appearance on CNBC warning of a dire market downturn. The March 18 interview helped push stock indexes to intraday lows and drew allegations of fearmongering.

Read more:BTIG says to buy these 25 under-the-radar stocks that have been neglected for years because they're tempting M&A targets with big upside

Ackman noted later that day he was "confident the president will do the right thing" and institute nationwide lockdowns.

More recently, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller warned the stock market's current risk-reward backdrop was "as bad as I've ever seen it." He expressed doubt that the Federal Reserve's easing measures would keep markets from tumbling again, and said he thought that a sharp economic rebound likely won't materialize.

"I pray I'm wrong on this, but I just think that the V-out is a fantasy," he said in a videoconference Tuesday with The Economic Club of New York.

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• As billionaire investors make the rounds on CNBC and other outlets, sharing their views on the stock market, one top financial adviser says everyday investors shouldn't act on what they say.
• Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, outlined two main reasons why investors shouldn't take cues from billionaires in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
• First, billionaires can't see the future. They have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day. Second, billionaires might tell you when they sold or bought in an interview, but they're not going to reach out and update you when they buy back or sell. 
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Billionaire investors have been making the rounds on CNBC and other media outlets in recent weeks, sharing their views on the stock market and economy.

But one top financial adviser says everyday investors shouldn't act on what they say.

This week alone, three billionaire investors sounded the alarm on high valuations in the stock market, including Stanley Druckenmiller,Chamath Palihapitiya, and David Tepper.

As tempting as it may be for individual investors to act on these comments and make changes to their portfolios, Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, said in a CNBC interview on Wednesday that they shouldn't.

"I don't think that individual investors or the vast majority of professional investors ... should be reacting at all to what they have to say," Brown said.

Brown gave two main reasons why investors shouldn't react to the billionaires' comments.

Read more: A real-estate investor who generates $342,000 of annual cash flow shares his unique spin on a popular investment strategy that's helped land him 114 units

First, according to Brown, these investors usually trade off of their gut and aren't using repeatable systematic strategies.

Their guess as to what will happen in the stock market tomorrow is as good as anyone else's. 

"On January 17, [Joe] Kernen got an e-mail from both of them [Tepper and Druckenmiller] — they were bullish as all get out. They loved being in stocks, intermediate-term bullish, short-term bullish. They couldn't see what was coming, no one else could either, and they changed their minds," Brown cited as an example.

Second, these investors can turnaround and change their minds on a dime, and when they do, they're not going to reach out and update you about their change of heart (and portfolio allocation). 

"This is the key, Sarah: The biggest trade in Druckenmiller's career was pulling two 180s in the space of four days. Being out of the Nasdaq during the biggest tech boom ever, then being all in, and then two days later not only being out, but being short. He's not going to call you," Brown said.

Another billionaire investor who keeps his cards close to his chest when it comes to investing is Warren Buffett.

Buffett told CNBC's Becky Quick on February 24 that Berkshire Hathaway wouldn't be selling stocks amid the initial market sell-off.

Read more: These 25 under-the-radar companies have been neglected for years - but BTIG says that makes them tempting M&A targets with big stock upside

Fast forward six weeks later, and Buffett revealed at Berkshire's annual meeting that they sold all of their airline stocks.

"Do not change your asset allocation based on Druck[enmiller] because Druck[enmiller] ain't gonna call you when he has a different opinion a few days later," Brown concluded.

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• Stanley Druckenmiller, Howard Marks, and other investing legends have recently voiced concern about the pace of the stock market's rally during a devastating economic crisis. 
• Mutual-fund managers are also expressing this view in surveys and through their demand for companies with lots of cash.
• Experts worry the economy will recover slower than is being priced in, and are alarmed at the expectation that markets will perpetually gain from the Fed's support.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories. 

Some of the biggest heavyweights on Wall Street are worried that the fastest stock-market crash of their lifetimes is fading at an unsustainable pace.

The gradual reopening of shuttered businesses by states — including all 50 as of last week — is boosting investors' confidence that the coronavirus-driven recession will be sharp but brief. Multiple reports of progress on a vaccine have also brightened expectations for a recovery and helped lift the S&P 500 more than 25% from its March 23 low.

Perhaps most importantly, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have led a massive effort to provide main street with the cash it forwent by going into lockdown, and Wall Street with the liquidity it needs to keep credit markets functioning.

The unprecedented scale of this support, particularly from the Fed, is at the heart of why several top investors doubt the longevity of the rally. 

A V-shaped recovery 'fantasy'

The roll call of skeptics begins with legendary investor Stanley Druckenmiller, chairman and CEO of the Duquesne Family Office. He was fairly bullish before the pandemic. But these days, he is speaking in bearish superlatives. 

"The risk-reward for equity is maybe as bad as I've seen it in my career," Druckenmiller recently told the Economic Club of New York during a virtual event. He worries too many investors expect that new liquidity from the Fed will flow into the markets indefinitely following a few strong months. 

He is also concerned that the distributed stimulus money may not be sufficient to quickly recover the economy.

"I pray I'm wrong on this, but I just think that the V-out is a fantasy," he said, referring to a V-shaped recovery.

Add Marc Lasry, the CEO of Avenue Capital, to the camp of those who anticipate a recovery that looks more like a U than a V.

The billionaire investor told CNBC he expected the US to be in a recession "for a while" due to the extent of damage on the scene.

"If you're going to have all these people unemployed, it's hard to end up coming out of a recession until that changes," Lasry said. "It's going to be a difficult couple years."

Oaktree Capital, one of the world's largest credit investors, is already positioning itself to profit from the wreckage. The firm reportedly plans to raise $15 billion for the largest distressed-debt fund in history, built to swoop in on struggling companies and assume controlling stakes in some, according to Bloomberg.

Its billionaire founder Howard Marks is also wary of the extent to which the market is propped up by the Fed. 

"Those of us in the markets believe that stocks and bonds are selling at prices they wouldn't sell at if the Fed were not the dominant force," he told Bloomberg TV. "So if the Fed were to recede, we would all take over as buyers, but I don't think at these levels."

Mutual fund managers are also skeptical

The mistrust of a quick recovery — and of this rally that is pricing one in — extends beyond the punditry of cable television. 

A recent Bank of America survey of 194 fund managers who collectively oversee $591 billion in assets found that more than two-thirds of them think this is a bear-market rally. Only 10% of managers expect a V-shaped recovery.

A Goldman Sachs report on mutual fund holdings further exposed how some of these managers are expressing their views in portfolios. The net result of their allocation shifts is a reluctance to price in a brisk comeback.

"Shifts in mutual fund sector and factor exposures suggest that managers expect a U-shaped recovery," said David Kostin, the chief US equity strategist.

He found that in the first quarter, the average fund reduced its allotments to strategies that stand to benefit from an economic recovery, including cyclicals and value stocks. Fund managers also reduced their exposure to bond proxies that would be protective during another severe downturn. 

Instead of these characteristics, mutual funds prized stocks with balance sheets that are strong enough to weather a widespread solvency crisis. 

Their sectoral allocation is also instructive. During the past month, fund managers have rotated from defensive sectors like utilities to secular growth sectors like tech and healthcare.

But Kostin is not quick to characterize this shift away from defensives as a bullish signal. After all, tech and healthcare are the best-performing sectors year-to-date, and managers who are tasked with beating the market do not want to miss out.

Kostin says their sector rotation simply shows a shift from "pessimism to skepticism around the economic restart." And that quote captures why several investing legends are not calling the outright end of the crisis just yet.

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• Stanley Druckenmiller told CNBC on Monday that he'd been "humbled" by markets following stocks' historic 50-day rally.
• "I've been humbled many times in my career, and I'm sure I'll be humbled many times in the future. And the last three weeks certainly fits that category," Druckenmiller said.
• Druckenmiller said last month that the stock market's risk-reward profile was one of the worst he'd ever seen, and he discounted the Federal Reserve's ability to save the economy.
• On Monday, Druckenmiller said he'd underestimated the Fed and was up only 3% after the market's 40% rally.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller told CNBC on Monday that he'd been "humbled" by markets after missing out on stocks' historic 50-day rally.

The stock market has rallied more than 40% off its March 23 low, marking its strongest 50-day rally.

Last month, Druckenmiller said in an interview with the Economic Club of New York that the stock market's risk-reward profile was one of the worst he'd ever seen, and he discounted the Federal Reserve's ability to save the economy.

"I've been humbled many times in my career, and I'm sure I'll be humbled many times in the future," he said on Monday. "And the last three weeks certainly fits that category."

The hedge-fund manager said he was up only 3% relative to the market's 40% rally, essentially missing out on the market run over the past two months.

Read more:MORGAN STANLEY: The stock market is entering a new phase of a playbook that's thrived in past recessions. Here's how to tweak your portfolio to take advantage.

Druckenmiller said that he'd had long-term concerns over the past few years about a buildup of debt in the corporate sector and that he'd thought the COVID-19 pandemic would be the catalyst for that corporate debt bubble to burst.

But the Fed's unprecedented actions of buying investment-grade and high-yield debt to shore up the credit market went against Druckenmiller's thesis.

"I underestimated how many red lines and how far the Fed would go," Druckenmiller said.

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Despite Druckenmiller's bearish views, he still owns some stocks.

"Amazon and Microsoft are my largest holdings, but I have the least growth rating in my portfolio I've had for maybe six or seven years," he said.

But he added: "I don't want your viewers to get too excited on that ... I can change my mind in a week or two."

That comment echoed those of CNBC's Josh Brown, who detailed last month why individual investors shouldn't take investment advice from billionaire hedge-fund managers.

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• There has been a surge in retail-trading activity since COVID-19 stay-at-home orders swept the nation.
• Part of the increase in trading activity by retail investors has been chalked up to sports bettors speculating on stocks because of the suspension of professional sports leagues during the pandemic.
• Barstool Sports' David Portnoy, aka Davey Day Trader, has led the charge of introducing a new audience to stocks — his trading videos often get up to 1 million views on Twitter.
• This group of traders has been betting on beaten-down stocks that veteran billionaire investors like Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn have abandoned. And they're starting to win.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Robinhood traders have been placing big bets against veteran billionaire investors, and they're starting to win.

Since COVID-19 stay-at-home orders swept the nation, there's been a surge in retail-brokerage trading, partly fueled by a new group of investors looking for excitement as professional sports leagues are suspended.

Barstool Sports' David Portnoy, known as Davey Day Trader on Twitter, has led the charge in introducing a new audience to investing through the videos he posts on Twitter, which often get up to 1 million views. He often talks about the stocks he's trading and why he's trading them, before going on impassioned rants about the market and political environment.

Recently, this new group of traders has been betting against the likes of veteran billionaire investors including Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, and Stanley Druckenmiller.

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First up is Buffett and the airline stocks.

In early May, Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway had liquidated its stake in the "big four" airlines. Around the same time, Robinhood investors and Portnoy started piling into airline stocks, as evidenced by a surge in assets in the US Global Jets exchange-traded fund.

Since Buffett revealed that he sold his airline stocks, the ETF has surged 55%.

Robinhood traders: 1. Veteran billionaire investors: 0.

Next up is Icahn and Hertz.

In late May, Icahn said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that he liquidated his position in Hertz at an average price of $0.72 per share, representing a loss of more than $1.8 billion. Hertz recently filed for bankruptcy, sending its shares into a tailspin.

But retail traders, apparently not scared that Hertz's equity could be wiped out by its bankruptcy proceedings, have piled into the stock. The number of Robinhood accounts that own Hertz has nearly doubled since the start of its bankruptcy proceedings, to 73,000 as of Friday.

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Since Icahn liquidated his position, Hertz has skyrocketed more than 400%.

Robinhood traders: 2. Veteran billionaire investors: 0.

Last up is Druckenmiller, David Tepper, and Chamath Palihapitiya.

In mid-May, the trio said in individual interviews with CNBC and the Economic Club of New York that stocks were too high. Druckenmiller called the market set-up at the time one of the worst risk-reward profiles he'd ever seen. Tepper called the stock market the second most overvalued in history. And Palihapitiya said the markets were "too damn high."

But retail traders continued to pile into the market. According to data from Robintrack, more than 12,000 Robinhood accounts bought the SPDR S&P 500 ETF since the investors' comments in mid-May, bringing the total to nearly 100,000.

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Since then, the S&P 500 index has rallied 15%, and Druckenmiller said on Monday that he'd been "humbled" by the recent rally in the stock market.

Robinhood traders: 3. Veteran billionaire investors: 0.

While retail traders have been on the winning side of trades against billionaire investors in the short term, what happens in the long term is still up in the air.

Economists have said that a second wave of COVID-19 infections poses the biggest threat to the US economy this year. If a second wave does in fact hit the US, retail traders would be wise to book some profits after such a strong and quick rally.

Read more:MORGAN STANLEY: The stock market is entering a new phase of a playbook that's thrived in past recessions. Here's how to tweak your portfolio to take advantage.

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• Billionaire investors including George Soros and David Tepper won't have to reveal their stock portfolios every quarter if a new SEC proposal is implemented.
• The investment firms run by Soros, Tepper, John Paulson, Paul Tudor Jones, and David Einhorn would all be exempt from filing 13-F forms if the agency raises the disclosure threshold from $100 million in equity holdings to $3.5 billion.
• The SEC wants to raise the threshold for the first time in 45 years to reflect the modern US equities market and slash compliance costs for smaller fund managers.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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George Soros, John Paulson, and other billionaire investors won't have to disclose the stocks they own at the end of every quarter if a new regulatory proposal gets the green light.

Other famous fund managers including David Tepper, Paul Tudor Jones, and David Einhorn would also be relieved of the requirement if the Securities and Exchange Commission hikes the disclosure threshold from $100 million to $3.5 billion.

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Soros Fund Management owned just under $2 billion in equities at the end of last quarter, SEC filings show. Paulson & Co reported about $2.6 billion, Tepper's Appaloosa Management boasted close to $3.3 billion, Tudor Investment Corporation held about $1.1 billion, and Einhorn's Greenlight Capital owned about $700 million.

Under the new rules, none of those firms would have to disclose their US equity portfolios unless their value passes the $3.5 billion mark.

The exclusion of billionaire investors under the proposed rule was first reported by Bloomberg.

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The SEC said in in its proposal that changing the threshold for the first time in 45 years would better reflect the current size and shape of the US equities market, and lessen the administrative burden on smaller investment firms.

It estimated the new rules could save managers up to $136 million a year in compliance costs.

It also argued that a $3.5 billion threshold would spare 89% of managers from having to compile and file a 13-F form each quarter, while ensuring that about 91% of US stock holdings by value would still be disclosed.

That calculation reflects the fact that a minority of investors such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway own the vast majority of publicly traded shares.

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• Stanley Druckenmiller, the billionaire investor and head of Duquesne Family Office, boosted the size of his portfolio by more than 30% in the second quarter. 
• Druckenmiller slashed holdings of big technology stocks such as Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google parent Alphabet (FANG) in the second quarter, SEC filings show.
• Here are Druckenmiller's top 10 holdings at the end of the second quarter. 
• Read more on Business Insider.

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller made many moves in his Duquesne Family Office portfolio in the second quarter, slashing stocks while adding positions and boosting the overall holdings, SEC filings show.

At the end of the second quarter, the Duquesne Family Office portfolio was about $3.3 billion, up from $2.5 billion previously, a more than 30% jump. 

Druckenmiller made a number of large additions to grow the portfolio. He boosted his Microsoft holding by nearly 63% during the quarter to roughly $366 million, now worth about 11% of the entire portfolio.

Part of Druckenmiller's strategy was to add large positions of  companies hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic  including JPMorgan Chase, Booking Holdings, and Starbucks. On the flip side, he also added shares of T-Mobile, and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, which have performed well amid the pandemic and ensuing recession. 

During the second quarter, Druckenmiller also slashed positions of major technology companies including FAANG stocks. He sold about $235 million of Amazon shares, bringing the company to roughly 7% of the total portfolio. He also dumped sizeable positions of Netflix, Facebook, Google parent Alphabet, Workday, and Activision Blizzard. 

Still, technology makes up about a quarter of the Duquesne Family Office portfolio, second only to consumer services companies, which make up nearly 30%. That's a change from the end of 2019, however, when technology was about half of the total portfolio. 

In July, Druckenmiller said that he'd been "humbled" by the market's blistering recovery rally, and admitted that at the time he was up only 3% relative to the market's roughly 40% jump, effectively missing out on the surge.

Here are Druckenmiller's top 10 holdings as of the second quarter that ended in June, according to SEC filings and data from Hedge Follow.

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1. Microsoft 

• Ticker:MSFT
• Total portfolio value: $366 million

2. Amazon 

• Ticker:AMZN
• Total portfolio value: $235 million 

3. T-mobile

• Ticker:TMUS
• Total portfolio value: $164 million 

4. JPMorgan Chase

• Ticker:JPM
• Total portfolio value: $152 million 

5. Netflix

• Ticker:NFLX
• Total portfolio value: $141 million 

6. Paypal 

• Ticker:PYPL
• Total portfolio value: $134 million 

7. Workday 

• Ticker:WDAY
• Total portfolio value: $130 million 

8. Alphabet 

• Ticker:GOOGL
• Total portfolio value: $123 million 

9. SPDR S&P Biotech ETF

• Ticker:XBI
• Total portfolio value: $123 million 

10. Barrick Gold 

• Ticker:ABX
• Total portfolio value: $115 million 

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• Stanley Druckenmiller told CNBC on Wednesday that the stock market is in a "raging mania" fueled by the Federal Reserve. 
• The billionaire investor said that the Fed did a "great job in March" but that the recent market rally has been "excessive." 
• "Look, everybody loves a party ... but inevitably after a big party there's a hangover, and right now we're in an absolute raging mania," he said.
• He added that he's worried the US could easily see 5-10% inflation in the next four or five years.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller told CNBC on Wednesday that there is a "massive, massive raging mania in financial assets" fueled by the Fed that has not spilled over onto Main Street and will lead to challenges for potentially the next five years.

"I have no clue where the markets are going to go in the near term," Druckenmiller said. "But I just want to remind people that there is no valuation support because we drop 10%. That hasn't mattered, because we're so far out the valuation realm with the Fed doing what they're doing ... I would say the next three to five years are going to be very, very challenging." 

The head of Duquesne Family Office said that Fed Chair Jerome Powell did "a great job in March" after cutting rates, but that the follow-up market rally has been "excessive." Even though Tuesday marked the S&P 500's third straight day of losses, the index has still rebounded roughly 48% from its March 23 intraday low. 

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"Look, everybody loves a party ... but inevitably after a big party there's a hangover, and right now we're in an absolute raging mania," he added. 

One example of the mania is the performance of large companies splitting their stocks. Druckenmiller said these splits create no value, but the stocks of the companies continue to go higher, sometimes by 50%, after the split. 

He also said that for the first time in a long time, he's worried about inflation. 

"We actually have the chairman of the Federal Reserve with a $3 trillion deficit out lobbying Congress to do more spending and guaranteeing those of us on Wall Street that he'll underwrite it. I think it's dangerous, I think we could easily see 5-10% inflation in the next four or five years," Druckenmiller said.  

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• Legendary tech investor Bill Gurley told CNBC on Friday that the stock market reminds him of the late '90s dot-com bubble. 
• "There is certainly what I would call a highly speculative nature to the markets today, a willingness to take on risks, a willingness to get excited about projects that may be five or 10 years in the future," the Benchmark partner said. 
• Other investors like Stanley Druckenmiller have drawn similar conclusions about today's technology stocks. 

• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Legendary venture capitalist Bill Gurley told CNBC on Friday that the stock market reminds him of the late-1990s tech trading environment that led to the dot-com bubble.

"There is certainly what I would call a highly speculative nature to the markets today, a willingness to take on risks, a willingness to get excited about projects that may be five or 10 years in the future, that we haven't seen since the '99 time frame," the Benchmark partner said. 

He added: "I really can't speculate or know exactly what it was, or the confluence of events that led to that, but we are living in a more speculative technology market for sure." 

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Other investors have echoed these concerns about frenzied traders pushing technology stocks into dangerously high territories. The top five tech stocks — Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook— make up nearly a quarter of the S&P 500. 

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller said in September that the market was in a "raging mania." After cloud-platform Snowflake soared as much as 165% on its IPO day, famed economist David Rosenberg said it reminded him of a "frenzy that took place in the dot-com bubble." 

But some argue there's a large difference between the internet companies of the '90s and tech giants of today. Billionaire Leon Cooperman said last week that he owns Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, and Microsoft, and that they're richly valued, but not expensive. He called them "better than gold."

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• American billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller is betting that the US dollar will weaken, and expects a Democratic 'blue wave' this election to be a long-term drag on stocks, Bloomberg reported.
• At a virtual conference on Tuesday, the hedge-fund manager said higher taxes and inflation will hurt equities in the coming years.
• "We have borrowed so much that I'm skeptical that three to five years out that equities will give us any kind of return," Druckenmiller said at the Robin Hood Investors Conference.
• He expects retail investors to put their money in beaten-down stocks in the travel industry, including airlines and cruise lines, in the first quarter, while technology stocks will pare some recent gains. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller is said to be shorting the US dollar, and he believes a Democratic sweep in the upcoming election could hurt stocks in the long-term, a Bloomberg report said.

"We have borrowed so much that I'm skeptical that three to five years out that equities will give us any kind of return," Bloomberg reported Druckenmiller saying at the virtual Robin Hood Investors Conference on Tuesday.

He said the prospect of higher taxes and inflation will weaken equities in the coming years.

Druckenmiller, whose net worth is around $5.8 billion, told some conference attendees that he was shorting the US dollar, as US Treasuries have seen record amounts of overseas selling in the past few months, Bloomberg said, citing sources.

If a successful COVID-19 vaccine and fiscal stimulus boost is delivered, some stocks should perform better in the next few months, he said. 

Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office portfolio saw an over 30% jump in the second quarter this year. He suggested that now, there is hope for unloved stocks, such as airlines and cruise lines.

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Retail investors will snap up travel industry stocks in the first quarter, and could trim some of their holdings of technology stocks, which got a boost earlier this year from the mass-shift towards remote working, he said.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden still has a healthy lead over President Donald Trump nationally, and is ahead by about 9 percentage points. FiveThirtyEight's polling average has Biden up 9.2 points. Polls have tightened slightly this week in Pennsylvania, one of the most crucial states for both Trump and Biden.

Druckenmiller foresees that in the next four years, inflation will top 4%, gold prices and bond yields will rise, while the US unemployment rate will fall only gradually, to 7% from 7.9% currently. He also expects that as inflation rises, any increase in interest rates by the US central bank won't be quick.

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• The American billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller told CNBC that work-from-home stocks were pricey and that a pivot into some of the beaten-down value stocks would be reasonable.
• Druckenmiller advised investors against going short, as positive news on the COVID-19 vaccine front saw US stocks jump to record highs Monday.
• "It's nuanced, but there are a lot of companies that will be direct beneficiaries (from a COVID-19 vaccine), and they probably have further to go," Druckenmiller said. "I certainly wouldn't want to be net short the market."
• The billionaire expects inflation to rise in the next five to six years. He believes gold and Bitcoin are good hedges against inflationary pressure.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller told CNBC on Monday that work-from-home stocks were overvalued and that a rotation into value stocks would be practical.

"You've had a bunch of equities benefitting greatly from work from home," Druckenmiller said on CNBC's "The Exchange" program. "A lot of money has rotated into them. They are overvalued."

"But then you've got a whole other sector of the market that has struggled mightily because of COVID," he said. "They're selling at under value relative to, say, a three-to-five-year outlook. So the rotation into that would seem entirely rational."

Druckenmiller, whose net worth is about $5.8 billion, cautioned against shorting the stock market after developments on the vaccine front on Monday. The US drugmaker Pfizer and its German biotech partner BioNTech said their experimental coronavirus vaccine succeeded in the final stage of clinical trials.

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US stocks rose to record highs after the companies said no serious safety concerns had been observed throughout the trial. They expect to produce over 50 million doses by the end of 2020 and more than 1 billion doses in 2021.

"It's nuanced, but there are a lot of companies that will be direct beneficiaries (from a COVID-19 vaccine), and they probably have further to go," Druckenmiller said. "I certainly wouldn't want to be net short the market."

The head of the Duquesne Family Office expects inflation to rise in the next five to six years alongside the US central bank's efforts to provide federal coronavirus relief funding. He also mentioned gold and Bitcoin were good ways to hedge against any inflationary pressure, benefiting metal miners like Rio Tinto, BHP, and Freeport-McMoRan. 

Raoul Pal, a former Goldman Sachs hedge-fund chief, said Druckenmiller's endorsement for Bitcoin could not be overstated. "That has removed every obstacle for any hedge fund or endowment to invest [in Bitcoin]," he said in a tweet Monday.

Pal expects the price of bitcoin to hit $1 million in five years.

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SEE ALSO: Global stocks rise but caution over Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine and US political uncertainty limit gains

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• Bitcoin has surged nearly 150% in 2020 and rose above the $18,000 threshold on Wednesday for the first time in three years.
• Billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya said in 2017 that the coin could reach $1 million in the next 20 years, while Michael Novogratz sees the coin surging to $60,000 in the next twelve months.
• Meanwhile, so-called Bond King Jeffrey Gundlach said "I don't believe in bitcoin. I think it's a lie."
• Detailed below is what seven investing titans think about bitcoin as it soars to new heights.
• Watch Bitcoin trade live here.

Bitcoin rose above $18,000 on Wednesday to its highest level in three years as institutions and investors around the world continued to pile into the cryptocurrency. While some investing legends like Chamath Palihapitiya have been outspoken bulls since the coin's inception, others have raised their doubts.

Detailed below is what seven investing titans have said about bitcoin in the past:

Chamath Palihapitiya

Billionaire venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya told CNBC in February that "everyone" should have 1% of their assets in Bitcoin because it's a "fantastic hedge."

"It would be great that an average individual citizen of any country of the world has an uncorrelated hedge... Every financial instrument is correlated, except Bitcoin, the Social Capital CEO said. 

Palihapitiya frequently tweets "HODL," a slang term within the cryptocurrency community that refers to holding the coin rather than selling. For example, on Sept. 22  he tweeted, "I've made some great bets before but nothing compares to my bitcoin bet in 2012...PS, HODL." 

In 2017, he told CNBC bitcoin will be worth one million dollars by 2037.

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Stanley Druckenmiller

"I'm a bit of a dinosaur, but I have warmed up to the fact that bitcoin could be an asset class that has a lot of attraction as a store of value," Stanley Druckenmiller told CNBC on Nov 9. The head of Duquesne Family Office expects inflation to rise in the next five years and said owning bitcoin will be a good hedge against inflationary pressure. The billionaire investor added that he owns a "tiny bit" of the coin. 

Ray Dalio

The founder of the world's largest hedge fund tweeted on Tuesday he "might be missing something about bitcoin" and sees a number of reasons why the coin can't serve as a reliable currency.

Dalio said bitcoin isn't a "very good as a store-hold of wealth" because its volatility is so high. He added that he doubts central banks, institutional investors, businesses, or multinational corporations would ever buy large amounts of bitcoin to hold as a reserve asset. However the Bridgewater Associates founder admitted to his twitter followers he's open to being corrected if he's "wrong about these things."

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Bill Miller 

"It's been very volatile, but I think right now its staying power gets better every day. I think the risks of bitcoin going to zero are much much lower than they've ever been before," said the founder of Miller Value Partners in a CNBC interview on Nov. 6.

The investing legend also pointed out that Bitcoin has been the "single best performing asset class" in the last year, five-year, and 10-year periods. 

Paul Tudor Jones

Hedge-fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones called bitcoin "the best inflation trade" in a CNBC interview from Oct 22. 

"Bitcoin has this enormous contingence of really, really smart and sophisticated people who believe in it," Jones said. "It's like investing with Steve Jobs and Apple and investing in Google early."

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Jeffrey Gundlach 

In a RealVision interview from Oct 1, billionaire "Bond King" Jeffrey Gundlach voiced his doubts about bitcoin. "I don't believe in bitcoin. I think that it's a lie. I think that it's very tracked, traceable. I don't think it's anonymous." Gundlach later added that he was "not at all a bitcoin hater."

Mike Novogratz

Outspoken bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz told CNBC on Wednesday bitcoin has "hit escape velocity" and could surge to $60,000 by the end of 2021 as more institutional investors adopt the cryptocurrency. 

"People are going to bitcoin because there's 20 million bitcoins that will ever be mined, there's complete scarcity in it. People believe it's a store of value. It's a social construct, and you can't change that," said Novogratz.

On Monday he tweeted, "A lot of friends asking me if they missed the crypto rally. [For whoever is wondering], I bought more $BTC and $ETH last night. #bullish."

The Galaxy Digital CEO said in July that 20% of his net worth is in bitcoin. 

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• Stanley Druckenmiller said he owns bitcoin as a "sort of a plaything" but he isn't sure if he believes in it.
• "It could be a new asset class. The answer is I don't know," he said in a Goldman Sachs webcast.
• Druckenmiller said younger millennials look at bitcoin the way he used to look at gold.
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US billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller says he owns some bitcoin, and it may well be a new asset class.

"I do own some of it," he said in a recent episode of Talks with Goldman Sachs. "It's gone up a lot since I bought it. It's just sort of a plaything. I don't really believe in it. I don't really not believe in it. It could be a new asset class. The answer is - I don't know."

Bitcoin rose 13% to a record high on Monday after Tesla disclosed that it spent $1.5 billion to buy the popular cryptocurrency. The token was last trading around $43,725.51, smashing its previous all-time high near $41,000 set in January.

Tesla's purchase is expected to create a ripple effect across corporations around the globe and add momentum to its shares as more investors start to factor in its crypto exposure as part of its overall valuation, according to analysts at Wedbush.

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Druckenmiller, chairman of the Duquesne Family Office, said he didn't think bitcoin would be trading as high as it is if the central bank weren't pumping record amounts of money into the economy to stop it collapsing. 

Although he was skeptical of it at first, he said bitcoin advocates have done an "unbelievable marketing job."

"It's been around 13 years," he said. "And particularly, younger millennials look at it the way I've always looked at gold."

Druckenmiller said he does doubt whether bitcoin can act as anything other than a store of value. He cited volatility, an immense amount of energy used in its generation, and other complex technical problems as shortcomings.

However, he has previously said that owning bitcoin is a good hedge against inflationary pressure.

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• Stanley Druckenmiller's family office dumped over $100 million of Netflix stock in the fourth quarter. 
• 13F filings also show the Duquesne Family Office increased its stake in cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks by 457%.
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Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller is betting big on tech stalwarts and cybersecurity, but sold some of the IT industry's biggest names in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to a securities filing released Tuesday.

Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office reported a 13F filing that included $3,712,696,000 in managed 13F securities. The largest holding is Microsoft Corporation; the hedge fund holds 2,638,074 shares.

Duquesne sold all of its 278,372 shares of Netflix. The streaming giant made up 4.04% of the fund and the stake was valued at $139.1 million at the end of the third quarter.

The hedge fund also increased its bet on cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks. . Druckenmiller's office increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 457%, adding shares estimated to be worth $335 million. Duquesne first started buying Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter of 2020. 

The cybersecurity company is now Duquesne's sixth largest position, behind Microsoft, T-Mobile, Amazon, Starbucks, and mining company Freeport-McMoRan. 

Other notable moves from Duquesne include: 

• Sold 545,755 shares of Alibaba, which made up 4.66% of the Duquesne Family Office portfolio in the previous quarter.  
• Sold the entire remaining stake in Facebook, shedding 207,895 shares. 
• Reduced stake in Penn National Gaming by 19%. 

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