Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald – which has about $3.53 billion in holdings – has been named as the co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump‘s transition team. Lutnick will lead the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Top Holdings Of Lutnick’s Firm: According to Cantor Fitzgerald’s third-quarter 13F filings, top holdings of the firm include SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY, Nvidia Corp. NVDA, Tesla Inc. TSLA, GCM Grosvenor Inc.GCMG, and Rumble Inc. RUM.
In the September quarter, Lutnick’s financial services firm purchased about 1.17 million shares of Tesla with 1.74 million put options in Q3. It bumped up its call options by 4,967% to 152,000 shares from the quarter-ended in July. The total value of the fund’s exposure to Tesla stood at $804 million in Q3.
Cantor Fitzgerald also increased its position in Nvidia by 7,015%, compared to the second quarter, with a total holding of 3.56 million shares in Q3. It increased Nvidia puts in Q3 by 1,268% to 5.46 million shares and Nvidia call options by 3,213% to 778,600 shares. The total exposure to Nvidia in value terms stood at $1.192 billion.
The fund had 1.23 million of put options and 600,000 call options on SPDR S&P 500 ETF TR representing a total value of $1.05 billion in Q3. GCM Grosvenor and Rumble reflected 2.1% and 1.2% of the fund’s total holdings, valued at $73.03 million and $42.04 million, respectively.
Why It Matters: Lutnick was also considered as a top pick for the Secretary of Treasury along with Scott Bessent. Tesla CEO and Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-lead Elon Musk rallied for Lutnick in a post on his social media platform, X, calling on others to weigh in on the appointment.
However, Bessent was appointed the Treasury Secretary. According to betting markets, Bessent was a frontrunner with an 82% probability of securing the nomination.
The third-quarter 13F filing from Bessent's Key Square Group fund shows that they have liquidated all their holding in the September quarter.
In the second quarter, the fund had a highly concentrated portfolio, with equal investments in two banking-focused ETFs: the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF KRE and the SPDR S&P Bank ETF KBE, each making up 50% of the fund.
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Photo courtesy: Cantor Fitzgerald
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