How They Make Money

How They Make Money

💰 Wall Street's Top Stocks in Q2

The AI trade broadened beyond NVIDIA

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App Economy Insights
Aug 18, 2026
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  • 💵 Free Cash Flow Explained

  • 🚀 SpaceX: Growth Meets the Bill


It’s 13F season again!

Every quarter, funds managing over $100 million must disclose their portfolios, offering a rare glimpse into the minds of elite investors.

The latest 13F filings capture portfolios as of June 30.

In Q2, the AI trade broadened beyond NVIDIA.

The biggest funds kept their core exposure to hyperscalers and leading chipmakers, but new money increasingly moved toward the rest of the AI supply chain. Taiwan Semiconductor, memory, storage, semiconductor equipment, and newer infrastructure names like Cerebras and Nebius featured prominently among top buys.

The theme also continued to spread into the physical economy. Power, industrials, materials, and infrastructure companies continued to attract capital as investors sought ways to participate in the massive data center buildout beyond GPUs.

Beyond AI, some of the quarter’s most interesting bets came from places few investors would expect.

Against that backdrop, super investors had to choose between doubling down on AI infrastructure, revisiting beaten-down growth stocks, or sticking with durable compounders.

Let’s see where the smart money leaned.

Today at a glance:

  1. Hedge funds’ strategies

  2. Top buys and top holdings in Q2

  3. Fund picks that were not on your bingo card

  4. Implications for individual investors


Before we dive into 13Fs, a quick reminder: blindly copying hedge fund trades is a terrible strategy.

Investing is like shooting 3-pointers. Even Steph Curry, the greatest shooter ever, misses more than half the time. There are no guaranteed outcomes, even for the pros.

Your behavior matters more than your portfolio. As Peter Lynch said, “Know what you own and why you own it.”

Conviction is what helps you hold through volatility. And conviction comes from doing your own work, not borrowing someone else’s.

As Ian Cassel puts it:

“You can borrow someone else’s stock ideas but you can’t borrow their conviction. […] Do the work so you know when to sell. Do the work so you can hold. Do the work so you can stand alone.”

Some limitations of 13F filings:

  • Omit short positions and cash reserves.

  • Offer a partial view, leaving out smaller funds.

  • Exclude non-US equities, bonds, and commodities.

  • Can be dated, given their submission 45 days after the quarter.

With all this said, let’s see what top funds were buying and holding in Q2.


1. Hedge funds’ strategies

Hedge funds are financial powerhouses known for flexible, aggressive strategies designed to beat the market.

Here’s what typically shapes their moves:

  • Market conditions: Long in bull markets, defensive in bear markets.

  • Sector trends: Shifts in regulation or consumer behavior steer capital.

  • Fundamentals: Strong earnings, free cash flow, and leadership matter.

  • Macro factors: Rates, inflation, and geopolitics influence positioning.

  • Quant models: Some lean on proprietary algorithms to find an edge.

  • Risk management: Diversification, hedging, and position sizing.

  • Investor sentiment: Fear and greed create mispriced opportunities.

Still, it doesn’t always work out.

The Global X Guru ETF (GURU), designed to track top hedge fund holdings, has underperformed the S&P 500 since its inception in 2012. And that comparison still leaves out the classic hedge fund fee drag.

Chart preview
Source: Fiscal.ai

And those fees matter. The classic “2 and 20” model (2% of assets + 20% of gains) can significantly reduce returns. It's no wonder that many individual investors are opting for simpler, lower-cost strategies.


2. Top holdings and top buys in Q2

Our partners at Fiscal.ai gather the data on Super Investors and visualize their portfolio for you. Pick your favorite investors and see how their holdings have evolved.

Source: Fiscal.ai

In early 2020, just before the COVID market turmoil, I curated a list of 20 top-performing hedge funds using TipRanks data. The selection focused on alpha relative to the S&P 500, and I also included a few funds frequently featured in my social feeds and podcast rotation. It’s not perfect, but it remains a solid directional filter.

Top 5 holdings end of June 2026:

The 10 stocks below represent nearly half of the top holdings listed:

  • 🤖 AI infrastructure: TSM, NVDA, ASML, AMAT, MU.

  • ☁️ Mega-cap platforms: AMZN, GOOG, META.

  • 🚀 New IPOs: SPCX, CBRS.

Amazon and Taiwan Semiconductor are now tied as the most widely held stocks, appearing among the top five holdings of 9 of the 20 funds. Alphabet follows with eight, while NVIDIA appears in five. Microsoft, once a fixture on this list, appeared only once at the end of June after falling more than 20% YTD.

Apple and Tesla were entirely absent from the top-five holdings.

The holdings themselves don’t change dramatically from quarter to quarter, so let’s turn to the more actionable insights with the new movements in Q2.

Top 5 buys in Q2

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