The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure, Japan-based financial giant NOMURA HOLDINGS INC (NOMURA HOLDINGS INC) has announced its position report (13F) for the first quarter ending March 31, 2024.

According to the latest data, the total market value of Nomura's Q1 holdings was US$40 billion, compared to US$36.9 billion in the previous quarter, an increase of 8.4% over the previous quarter. Nomura added 423 new targets to its Q1 portfolio, increased its holdings by 428, reduced its holdings by 615, and cleared 594 targets; among them, the top ten holdings accounted for 38.52% of the total market value, and their holdings were relatively concentrated.

Among Nomura's top ten major stocks, it is concentrated in index options and IT stock categories. Index options account for a relatively high share of the top ten positions. Nomura Q1 buys a two-way option (double option) of the NASDAQ 100 ETF — that is, buying both bullish and bearish options for a given target — to construct a long straddle strategy (long straddle) to benefit from drastic changes in securities or futures prices. Second, Nomura simultaneously sells bullish and bearish options on S&P 500 ETFs — a short straddle strategy (short straddle), which means that Nomura may think that the market volatility of the S&P 500 index corresponding to the S&P 500 ETF will be drastically reduced; this strategy is suitable for situations where it is expected that the market will maintain a sideways trend, that is, the volatility of the corresponding index is low and there is no significant fluctuation.

Among them, Nomura's main underlying stocks are Dollar Tree (DLTR.US) and Kochi (CTSH.US), which account for 3.61% and 2.43% of the portfolio, respectively, and are ranked fifth and eighth respectively. Among them, the number of Kochi special holdings soared month-on-month, accounting for a direct increase of 2.43%.

Second, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms (META.US) ranked first for call options, holding about 8.402 million shares and holding a market value of about US$4.08 billion, accounting for 10.19% of the portfolio. The number of holdings decreased by 19.2% from the previous quarter. Meta put options were also drastically reduced by Nomura. The increase in holdings decreased by 9.85% compared to the previous quarter. This put option ranked Nomura's sixth largest position. It is worth noting that Nomura Q1 simultaneously reduced Meta's bullish and bearish options holdings — constructing a cross-style strategy for bears — indicating that the investment bank believes that Meta's stock price fluctuates less.

Furthermore, TSM.US (TSM.US) holds the fourth largest position, holding approximately 10.675 million shares, with a market value of about US$1.46 billion, accounting for 3.63% of the portfolio. The number of holdings increased by 1.45% over the previous quarter. TSMC's bullish options also received a significant increase in Nomura's holdings, and the number of positions soared 835% month-on-month, making it the seventh-largest position target. Nomura bought TSMC's bullish and bearish options at the same time in the first quarter — building a multi-position strategy, and the number of bullish options bought was much higher than that of bearish options. This indicates that in the first quarter, Nomura is betting that TSMC's stock price will fluctuate greatly and is biased towards an increase.

Judging from changes in position ratio, Nomura's top five buying targets are: Kochi (CTSH.US), Invesco 100ETF put options (QQQ.US, PUT), TSMC (TSM.US), Blackstone (BX.US), and Invesco NASDAQ 100ETF call options (QQQ.US, CALL). In terms of opening new warehouses, Nomura mainly bought two IT companies Sensata Technology (ST.US) and Xinjushi (SNX.US) in the first quarter.

The top five selling targets include SPDR S&P 500 ETF put options (SPY.US, PUT), Western Digital (WDC.US), SPDR S&P 500 ETF bullish options (SPY.US, CALL), Microsoft bullish options (MSFT.US, CALL), and Macy's (M.US).