Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn trimmed his SPDR Gold Trust stake to 99,611 shares in Q1 2026, while Third Point's Daniel Loeb opened a new 95,000-share position in the same quarter, regulatory filings show. The opposite bets land as the 10-year Treasury yield climbs to 4.75% while the Fed holds rates at 3.75%, eroding some of gold's appeal as a non-yielding asset even as GLD remains up 20.25% over the past year.
David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital trimmed its stake in the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD) to 99,611 shares in the first quarter of 2026. Daniel Loeb's Third Point, meanwhile, opened a brand-new position of 95,000 shares in the same quarter. Both disclosures landed in 13Fs filed roughly 45 days after quarter-end. The two stakes are almost the same size, reached from opposite directions.
Einhorn's Trim Tracks a Macro Shift
Einhorn spent the past two years arguing central banks and sovereigns were quietly reclassifying gold as a reserve asset. Loeb, whose reputation formed in equities and activist campaigns, sits far from that hard-money camp, so the loud bull going quiet while the equity investor goes loud is worth noticing.
GLD ran from around $437 on January 20 to roughly $454 by early February, then peaked near $462 in mid-February. Since then the trust has retraced: it sits at $375.77 as of August 3, down 9.62% from June 1 and 6.21% year-to-date. On a one-year basis it remains up 20.25%. Einhorn sold into strength; Loeb bought near the top.
Rising Real Yields Explain the Trim
Gold's rally rested on low real yields, Fed cuts, and rising core inflation. But the Fed has cut rates 75 basis points over the past year to 3.75%. It has held there since December 11, 2025. Meanwhile the 10-year Treasury yield has climbed from a February low of 3.97% to 4.75% on July 31, its 99.6th percentile in the trailing year.
Higher nominal yields with the Fed on hold push real yields higher, and that erodes gold's relative appeal even as core PCE inflation sits in the 90.9th percentile of its trailing range. Therefore Einhorn's trim during a rate-cut pause and a yield melt-up is internally consistent with his own macro thesis.
Loeb Is Buying Insurance
Third Point runs an equity-driven book, which makes this entry deliberate. First, a Fed pause is exactly what breaks if growth slows and cuts resume, at which point gold reprices. Second, the VIX sits at 15.86, in the 22.5th percentile of the past year, suggesting markets are complacent, and Loeb is buying insurance while it is cheap.
Einhorn still holds 99,611 shares of GLD, not a small residual, and Loeb's new position reads as a modestly sized hedge against a Fed forced back into cutting. For a retirement portfolio already holding gold at a 5% to 10% allocation, the two filings suggest elite capital still wants gold in the book, just at a lower weight than the rally implied.
Source: 24/7 Wall St.
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