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Vic Chen
Vic Chen

Posted on • Originally published at 13finsight.com

Reading $868B Wrong: Why Susquehanna's 13F Isn't What It Looks Like

The Misconception

Susquehanna International Group filed Q4 2025 with $868B in 13F assets — the 10th largest filer in the US. If you're building a portfolio analysis tool or doing quant research, this looks like a massive institutional bet on NVDA, SPY, TSLA, META, AAPL, MSFT.

It's not. And misreading it will break your signal.

What Susquehanna Actually Is

SIG is a market maker and options specialist. Their 13F holdings are not directional bets — they're:

  1. Delta hedges — Long equity positions offset against short options
  2. Market-making inventory — Stock held to facilitate customer orders
  3. ETF arbitrage positions — ETF creation/redemption mechanics

The Data Structure Problem

The SEC's 13F form doesn't distinguish between:

  • A hedge fund buying 1M shares of NVDA as a long-term bet
  • A market maker holding 1M shares of NVDA to delta-hedge their options book

Both file identical Form 13F entries.

How to Filter Market Makers in Your Data

# Identify likely market makers by breadth and options activity
def is_likely_market_maker(filer):
    position_count = len(filer.holdings)
    options_ratio = filer.options_value / filer.total_value
    return position_count > 5000 or options_ratio > 0.4
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The Right Mental Model

For quant research using 13F data:

  • Include: Hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds
  • Exclude or weight differently: Market makers (Citadel, SIG, Two Sigma, Virtu)
  • Check: business model before reading position changes as signals

Full analysis:

https://13finsight.com/research/susquehanna-q4-2025-868b-options-market-maker?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article_ops_0318


Originally published at 13finsight.com

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