Welcome to the Premium edition of How They Make Money. Over 290,000 subscribers turn to us for business and investment insights. 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. The latest 13F filings capture trades from October 1 to December 31. Q4 was defined by an AI infrastructure arms race and massive CapEx commitments from Big Tech. The market has increasingly concentrated in a handful of dominant players as rate-cut expectations shifted into 2026. Against that backdrop, super investors repositioned into year-end, just before software sentiment began to crack in early 2026. Some doubled down on winners, others quietly rotated. Let’s see where the smart money leaned. Today at a glance:
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 Q4. 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 since its inception in 2012, 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 Q4Our 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 December 2025:
The 10 stocks below represent half of the top holdings listed:
Amazon remains by far the most widely held stock at the top of these portfolios, appearing in 12 of the 20 funds. Also, note that Apple is entirely absent despite being the second-largest company by market cap globally. You also won’t find Tesla here. This list of holdings doesn’t change much from one quarter to the next, so let’s turn to the more actionable insights with the new movements in Q4. Top 5 buys in Q4:...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, February 17, 2026
💰 Wall Street's Top Stocks in Q4
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