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In case you missed it: It’s 13F season again!Every quarter, funds managing over $100 million must disclose their portfolios, offering a rare glimpse into the minds of elite investors. 13F filings capture trades from July 1 to September 30. Q3 was a story of AI strength, rate uncertainty, and renewed market concentration around a handful of mega-cap winners (but not the ones you would expect). Against that backdrop, super investors sharpened their portfolios in surprisingly different ways. Let’s see where the smart money leaned. Today at a glance:
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Before we dive into 13Fs, a quick reminder: blindly copying hedge fund trades is a terrible strategy. Investing is like shooting 3-pointers. Even Steph Curry, the greatest shooter ever, misses more than half the time. There are no sure bets, even for the pros. Your behavior matters more than your portfolio. As Peter Lynch said, “Know what you own and why you own it.” Conviction is what helps you hold through volatility. And conviction comes from doing your own work, not borrowing someone else’s. As Ian Cassel puts it:
Some limitations of 13F filings:
With all this said, let’s see what top funds were buying and holding in Q2. 1. Hedge funds’ strategiesHedge funds are financial powerhouses known for flexible, aggressive strategies designed to beat the market. Here’s what typically shapes their moves:
Still, it doesn’t always work out. The Global X Guru ETF (GURU), built to track top hedge fund holdings, has underperformed the S&P 500 over the past decade, even before fees.
And those fees matter. The classic “2 and 20” model (2% of assets + 20% of gains) can significantly reduce returns. It's no wonder that many individual investors are opting for simpler, lower-cost strategies. 2. Top holdings and top buys in Q3Our partners at Fiscal.ai gather the data on Super Investors and visualize their portfolio for you. Pick your favorite investors and see how their holdings have evolved.
In early 2020, just before the COVID market turmoil, I curated a list of 20 top-performing hedge funds using TipRanks data. The selection focused on alpha relative to the S&P 500, and I also included a few funds frequently featured in my social feeds and podcast rotation. It’s not perfect, but it remains a solid directional filter. Top 5 holdings end of September 2025:
The 10 stocks below represent half of the top holdings listed:
This list doesn’t change much from one quarter to the next, so let’s turn to the more actionable insights with the new movements in Q3. Top 5 buys in Q3:...Subscribe to How They Make Money to unlock the rest.Become a paying subscriber of How They Make Money to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
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Tuesday, November 18, 2025
💰 Wall Street's Top Stocks in Q3
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