Famous trades — public-record case studies
Eight 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.
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.