Not saying whether they still have that position, i have no idea but its important to understand the news is pretty dated as markets go, its 6 weeks old right? Its incredibly liquid so it could very well already be gone or long, we don’t know. Second they are used for hedging. They can offset long positions in stocks. If thats the case its totally misrepresenting the position.
More and more i see made up news stories. Take an isolated fact and spin it any which way you want. Not you of course but the bloggers, the writers. In this case we have a solitary position in a security which without other facts not to mention how dated it is, is meaningless.
Even an isolated bet is significant if it is as large as $1.3 Billion, as puts have a finite life and will expire worthless.
To make such a big bet one would need supreme confidence that the S&P will tank in the near future. And Soros did not get rich by making bad bets.