Einhorn Letter Lifts These Two ETFs

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, the $8 billion hedge fund, released its second-quarter update to clients Friday and the poker-playing hedge fund manager's musings helped boost at least two ETFs.

Shares of the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) rallied closed near their highest levels of the day, up roughly one percent, after Einhorn confirmed that gold remains one of Greenlight's largest positions.

Einhorn did not go into specifics, but Greenlight's first-quarter 13F filing showed the hedge fund had exposure to both individual mining and GDX.

At the end of the first quarter, Greenlight owned over six million shares of GDX and nearly two million shares of Barrick (NYSE:ABX), according to the filing. Barrick is GDX's second-largest holding at 10.7 percent of the ETF's weight.

Given that GDX is down over 41 percent year-to-date, it is not a stretch to say the trade has been a loser for Greenlight, but the firm's clients can find some comfort in knowing the ETF is up 23.5 percent in the past month.

Shares of the Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (NYSE:GREK) also closed near the highest levels of the session after Greenlight revealed "medium-sized long positions" in Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank. Those stocks are GREK's fourth- and sixth-largest holdings, respectively, combining for 14.2 percent of the ETF's weight.

What is interesting about the Greek bets is that Greenlight invested in an emerging market. That is exactly what Greece is classified as by not one, but two major index providers, MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) and Russell Investments.

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