Most of the time one buys a stock thinking it will go up in value. A “put” is some sort of way of betting that the stock will go down, and making money when it goes down. Soros bought these back in June iirc - but not that long ago.
I love a good conspiracy, and as I noted before, why not try to make some money while trying to take down a nation. On the other hand, with all of Soros’ investments, I bet he has millions/billions of “puts” in hundreds/thousands of companies.
Heck - I might have some investments in my IRA that could be traced back to “puts” on MGM. (Stock in Magellen Banks, which as part of it’s portfolio includes the puts.)
A “put” is some sort of way of betting that the stock will go down
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Correct. Buying a put allows the owner of the put to sell a stock at a price that is above the current price (if the stock’s price should fall). In simple terms, if I buy a put with a strike price of $100 and the stock price falls to, say $90, I have the right to sell the stock to the seller of the put for $100, thereby making a profit of roughly $10 a share (minus the fee I paid for the put and commissions).
Alternatively, instead of selling the stock you could sell the (appreciated) put itself at a price above what you paid for it.
This is a little oversimplified, but its basically how you make money with puts.
Options (buying and selling puts and calls) are quite complicated and potentially very risky. But they are also used as a form of portfolio insurance.