Hold Positions are the position on an item that a character holds it by. They are empty objects used to simply set a location and rotation. Link below is a video showing them in use on items in-game.
https://ss3d.space/assets/img/posts/20.05.01/ItemOrientations.mp4
Some items may have more than one Hold Position. Different variables like object's shape, object's type, object's state, character's intent, character's species, character's hand, character's pose etc.. may effect how a item is held. This will be managed via different Hold Positions.