David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital switched his holdings in GLD gold ETF into bullion

This is an interesting piece of news because it kind of means that Greenlight is committed to hold its gold position for a long time.

I don't know more than what the Bloomberg report says but it usually is more difficult to get rid of physical positions than exchange traded ETFs. But maybe he has an arrangement with the CME or LSE and can hence sell his stake in the futures market...

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Greenlight Capital Inc., the $5 billion hedge-fund firm run by David Einhorn, told investors it switched all of its holdings in a gold exchange-traded fund into bullion during the second quarter.

“At a minimum this will provide some savings as the costs of storing gold are less than the fees” for the SPDR Gold Trust, the New York-based firm said yesterday in a letter to investors.

Einhorn, 40, told clients in January he was buying gold for the first time amid the threat of inflation from higher government spending. The firm, started in 1996, held 4.2 million shares of SPDR Gold Trust in the first quarter, making the gold- backed ETF its biggest holding. Gold has climbed 5.8 percent this year.