Famous trades — public-record case studies
Nine historical trades reconstructable from SEC EDGAR alone. Each essay traces the trade through 13F filings, Form 4 insider disclosures, and DEF 14A proxy statements — showing exactly what the public record reveals AND what it structurally cannot show (CDS positions, FX trades, derivatives, and shorts are all 13F-invisible).
Warren Buffett's Coca-Cola trade
Berkshire Hathaway accumulated ~6.7% of Coca-Cola for $1.3B in 1988-89. The position has been untouched for 37 years; current mark-to-market is ~$28B before dividends.
Warren Buffett's Apple position
Berkshire built Apple into its largest-ever equity position from a Q1 2016 ~9.8M-share entry. Peaked at ~5.5% of Apple's outstanding stock and ~50% of Berkshire's public-equity portfolio. Partial trim in 2024; still Berkshire's #1 holding.
Warren Buffett's Bank of America 2011 deal
August 2011: Berkshire invested $5B in BAC preferred stock + warrants for 700M common shares at $7.14 strike. Six years later Berkshire exercised the warrants at ~$13B paper gain. The canonical 'structured private investment' template, joining Goldman 2008 + GE 2008 + Heinz 2013.
David Tepper's 2009 bank trade
Q1 2009: with US bank common stocks at 20-30 cents on tangible book amid genuine nationalization fear, Appaloosa Management bought ~$2B of BAC + Citi + AIG. The trade returned ~$7B and reportedly delivered Tepper a $4B personal payday — second-largest single-year hedge-fund individual payout in modern history at the time.
Michael Burry's Big Short
Scion Capital bought CDS on subprime mortgage bonds 2005-2007. Trade returned ~489% net to investors. Visible only in Burry's letters + the Lewis book — NOT in any 13F (CDS aren't 13F-disclosable).
Bill Ackman's Herbalife short
Pershing Square's ~$1B short of Herbalife ran six years and ended at a loss in 2018. One of the most-documented public-activism short campaigns in modern markets.
Black Wednesday — the Quantum Fund pound trade
September 16, 1992: the day Quantum Fund's ~$10B GBP short broke the Bank of England. Roughly $1B net in a single day. FX trades are 13F-invisible — the entire trade is reconstructable only from public reporting + memoirs.
Charlie Munger's Costco position
26+ year hold from 1997 to 2023, plus continuous Costco board service. The cleanest verifiable long-duration insider trail in the SEC record — every share documented via Form 4 + DEF 14A.
Carl Icahn's Apple buyback campaign
$3.6B Apple position + public letter to Tim Cook arguing for accelerated buybacks. Closed 2016 with ~$2B realized gain. The cleanest 13F-traceable activist-long case study in modern markets.
Why these six
Each trade is famous AND fully verifiable from SEC EDGAR filings (or, where the structure is outside 13F, from primary-source published material — letters, books, academic reconstructions). The collection deliberately mixes 13F-visible trades (Buffett, Ackman, Munger, Icahn) with 13F-invisible trades (Burry's CDS, Soros-Druckenmiller's FX short) to demonstrate the boundary of what institutional disclosure can and cannot show.
Not investment advice. Historical analysis from SEC Form 4 + 13F filings + DEF 14A proxy disclosures, supplemented by published primary sources where the trade structure was outside 13F. Methodology.
Reading for your research
Optional background reading on interpreting company disclosures and investing methods. These books do not validate a signal or predict returns.
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