Form 13F filings, disclosing Q2 holdings, began to trickle in early Monday from hedge funds and other institutional investors, like Paulson & Company.  Let's see who moved into and out of financial stocks. 

Form 13F, Reports Filed by Institutional Investment Managers.   An institutional investment manager that uses the U.S. mail (or other means or instrumentality of interstate commerce) in the course of its business, and exercises investment discretion over $100 million or more in Section 13(f) securities must report its holdings as of the end of a calendar quarter on Form 13F with the SEC within 45 days of quarter's end - or 8/15 for Q2..

Section 13(f) securities generally include:  (i) equity securities that trade on an exchange (including the Nasdaq NMS); (ii) certain equity options and warrants;  (iii) shares of closed-end investment companies;  and, (iv) certain convertible debt securities.   [SEC.gov]

John Paulson cut his enormous position in Bank of America in half, avoiding some but not all of the damage there.  He also reduced significantly his holdings in Citigroup to roughly 33 million shares, but bought about 180,000 shares of the CIT Group, which is run by John Thain.  In July Paulson told investors on a conference call that he had been too aggressive with some of his stock bets and was trimming back. And it showed, as his main funds were down as much as 30% for the year through the first week of August. 

David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa Management, also was a heavy seller of Bank of America, reducing his position by 40% to 10 million shares while also trimming his position in Citigroup.   

David Einhorn, who's apparently looking to diversify on his New York Mets stake, sold off his entire stake in the CIT Group, moving in the opposite direction of some managers.

Bill Ackman, the activist investor who runs Pershing Square Capital Management, bought 8.9 million shares of Citigroup, making his position nearly $1 billion by the end of last quarter and ahead of the sell-off in the bank’s shares in the summer market turmoil.

Daniel Loeb, who runs Third Point Management, took a big stake in the CIT Group.

Warren Buffett made some small moves in his portfolio, raising his Wells Fargo stake by a little more than 1%. 

Dinakar Singh, through TPG-Axon Management, eliminated his positions in Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase.

Thomas Steyer's Farallon took a different tack, boosting its holdings in Wells Fargo to 3.4 million shares from 2.7 million shares at the end of March.  Farallon also increased its holdings in trust bank State Street by 200,000 shares to 3.1 million.

Eton Park Capital stuck by its bets and kept its positions in JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America unchanged.

More names will be released on Tuesday, covering those who filed later in the day.

[CNBC.com. Dealbook, Thomson Reuters, 8/15/11]