AR Magazine has revealed a list of the top 25 highest earning hedge fund managers from 2011. This is their 11th year of doing the rankings and they found that the upper echelon earned an average of $576 million and a combined total of $14.4 billion. Here's the top five:
1. Ray Dalio (Bridgewater Associates): $3.9 billion. You can view Ray Dalio on deleveragings, his newly released research paper
2. Carl Icahn (Icahn Capital Management): $2.5 billion. One of his holdings was featured as a previous stock of the week: what Carl Icahn sees in WebMD.
3. James Simons (Renaissance Technologies): $2.1 billion. We just recently posted up Jim Simons' presentation at MIT. Simons is one of the top earners on this list despite having retired.
4. Ken Griffin (Citadel): $700 million. You can view some of Citadel's latest moves here.
5. Steven Cohen (SAC Capital): $585 million. We've posted up recent portfolio activity from SAC Capital as well.
It's interesting to compare the above individual earner list to the list of the top 10 hedge funds by net gains since inception as there is no doubt some overlap.
Other Notable Earners: Chase Coleman from Tiger Global slides in at the sixth position. Recall that his fund saw big gains from private investments that IPO'd during last year. Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global earned $300 million and Paul Tudor Jones (Tudor Investment Corp) earned $175 million.
New Additions to the List: 2011 saw plenty of new faces on AR's list including: Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management, Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital, Jeffrey Ubben of ValueAct Capital, Paul Singer of Elliott Management, Renaissance's Robert Mercer and Peter Brown, as well as Bridgewater's Greg Jensen and Robert Prince.
Notably Absent: AR mentions that the most notable absentee from the list is John Paulson. He fell off after a weak 2011 performance wise after he was the top hedge fund earner the year prior. George Soros misses the list after he returned outside investor money and converted his hedge fund into a family office.
You can view the rest of the top 25 earners list here.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Top 25 Highest Earning Hedge Fund Managers of 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Forbes Billionaire List 2011: Top Investors That Made the Cut
Forbes is out with its billionaire list: 2011 edition. This year, the list features 1,210 billionaires with a total net worth of $4.5 trillion. Digest that for a second. What might surprise you even more is the number of prominent investors that grace this accomplished list.
Notable Moves From Last Year
Last year in a quick scan, we highlighted 36 top investors on Forbes' list. This time around, we found 48 prominent investors. The top three slots remain unchanged from 2010 with Carlos Slim Helu, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett occupying their same respective positions. It should come as no surprise that many of the founders of the top 10 biggest hedge funds also grace this list of billionaires.
Moving Up: John Paulson moved up six slots on the list by adding to his fortune by 33% (+$4 billion). Appaloosa Management founder David Tepper jumped up 50 spots on the list as he boosted his net worth by almost 43% to $5 billion.
Moving Down: Energy trader John Arnold's fortune shrank by $0.7 billion and as a result he dropped 124 spots. David Shaw's net worth declined by 12% and he fell 166 slots on Forbes' list. Wesco and Berkshire Hathaway veteran Charlie Munger somehow saw his savings swoon by 41% as he slid 558 spots.
Net Worth Up, Rank Down: George Soros saw his personal warchest grow by only $500 million (we use the term 'only' very loosely) and thus was leapfrogged by numerous other investors on the list. Paul Tudor Jones found himself in a similar scenario where he increased his net worth by $100 million but slipped 39 rungs on the ladder. It appears as though the rich were simply getting richer faster than these two hedge fund titans.
Top Investors on Forbes' Billionaire List
(Click links for recent activity from each manager):
1. Carlos Slim Helu $74b: Made money in telecom but still a large investor
2. Bill Gates $56b: Invests via his Cascade vehicle
3. Warren Buffett $50b: Berkshire Hathaway (see his reading list)
26. Prince Alwaleed $19.6b: Famous for his investment in Citigroup
39. John Paulson $16b: Hedge fund Paulson & Co (see his year-end letter)
46. George Soros $14.5b: Soros Fund Management
57. Paul Allen $13b: Made money via Microsoft but invests (Vulcan)
61. Carl Icahn $12.5b: Recently announced he's returning outside capital
74. Jim Simons $10.6b: Renaissance Technologies Medallion Fund
114. Steven Cohen $8b: SAC Capital
162. Ray Dalio $6b: Bridgewater Associates (see his recent interview here)
169. Stephen Schwarzman $5.9b: Blackstone Group
208. Sam Zell $5b: Real estate and private equity
208. David Tepper $5b: Appaloosa Management (cautious but optimistic)
235. Bruce Kovner $4.5b: Global macro hedge fund Caxton Associates
268. Robert, Daniel, & Dirk Ziff $4b each: Brothers from Och-Ziff
281. Henry Kravis $3.9b: Co-founder of KKR
304. Eddie Lampert $3.6b: ESL Investments (runs Sears Holding Co)
310. Leon Black $3.5b: Founded private equity firm Apollo Management
336. Paul Tudor Jones $3.3b: Tudor Investment Corp
336. Daniel Och $3.3b: Och-Ziff
336. John Arnold $3.3b: Energy trader of Centaurus Capital
362. Peter Kellogg $3.1b: Wall Street specialist firm Spear, Leeds & Kellogg
459. Stanley Druckenmiller $2.5b: His Duquesne Capital recently shut down
459. Mark Cuban $2.5b: Made his fortune in technology but is avid investor
512. Julian Robertson $2.3b: Tiger Management founder
512. Ken Griffin $2.3b: Citadel Investment Group founder
540. David Shaw $2.2b: Founder of D.E. Shaw & Co
540. Philip Falcone $2.2b: Harbinger Capital focusing on 4G network
564. Bill Gross $2.1b: PIMCO's bond vigilante
651. Wilbur Ross $1.9b: Specializes in leveraged buyouts
651. Izzy Englander $1.9b: Millennium Management
692. Leon Cooperman $1.8b: Omega Advisors (see his recent interview)
692. Alan Howard $1.8b: Hedge fund firm Brevan Howard
736. Louis Bacon $1.7b: Global macro hedge fund Moore Capital Management
736. Ken Fisher $1.7b: Fisher Investments
736. Glenn Dubin $1.7b: Highbridge Capital
736. Stephen Mandel $1.7b: Hedge fund firm Lone Pine Capital
782. Richard Chilton $1.6b: Chilton Investment Company
833. Michael Price $1.5b: MFP Investors
833. James Dinan $1.5b: York Capital Management
833. Peter Thiel $1.5b: Made fortune in tech, runs hedge fund Clarium Capital
833. Marc Lasry $1.5b: Avenue Capital
879. T. Boone Pickens $1.4b: This energy maverick also manages a hedge fund
993. Henry Swieca $1.2b: Highbridge Capital
993. Howard Marks $1.2b: Oaktree Capital
1140. Charlie Munger $1b: Berkshire Hathaway
1140. Nelson Peltz $1b: Trian Fund Management
Overall, prominent investors comprise around 4% of this exclusive list. For more recent investor accolades, be sure to also check out the top 10 biggest hedge funds in 2010 as well as the list of 2010 hedge fund returns.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Value Investing Congress Almost Sold Out: Last Chance
We just received word from the Value Investing Congress that the event on May 4th & 5th in Pasadena is 90% sold out. Register for one of the remaining seats and you can save $300 off the regular price of admission. Use discount code P10MF11 to receive the discount and sign-up here. At the event you'll receive actionable investment ideas from some of the top investment managers out there and be able to network with a ton of great industry professionals. Here's the list of speakers:
• Bruce Berkowitz, Fairholme Capital Management
• Eric Sprott, Sprott Asset Management
• Mohnish Pabrai, Pabrai Investment Funds
• Paul Sonkin, The Hummingbird Value Funds
• Thomas Russo, Gardner, Russo & Gardner
• David Nierenberg, The D3 Family Funds
• Lloyd Khaner, Khaner Capital
• J. Carlo Cannell, Cannell Capital
• Patrick Degorce, Thélème Partners
• Whitney Tilson and Glenn Tongue, T2 Partners
• Guy Spier, Aquamarine Fund
• Amitabh Singhi, Surefin Investments
• Richard Vogel, Alatus SA
• Lei Zhang, Hillhouse Capital Management
This is your last chance to attend the event and we highly recommend it. Click here to receive $300 off with discount code: P10MF11.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Last Chance For The Value Investing Congress Discount
A friendly reminder that this is your last chance to receive the discount to the Value Investing Congress we've secured. Market Folly readers can receive the final discount with code P10MF8. Take advantage of it while you can because it expires on March 16th.
The conference takes place on May 4th & 5th 2010 in Pasadena, California at the Langham, Huntington Hotel & Spa. Notable speakers include Eric Sprott, Bruce Berkowitz, Mohnish Pabrai, Whitney Tilson, Paul Sonkin, Guy Spier and many more fund managers. At the event you'll receive actionable investment ideas that will more than pay for your cost of admission. And not to mention, it will be a great opportunity to network with many other great investors.
The Value Investing Congress is already 75% full and again please note that this final discount expires at midnight on March 16th. After that, you will be paying $1,300 more to attend the conference. Click here to receive your discount with code P10MF8 before it expires next week!
World's Largest Hedge Funds
Pensions&Investments is out with some very interesting research regarding the world's largest hedge funds as of the end of 2009. They've tallied up the assets under management totals for all the various firms and have ranked them accordingly. Many of the firms below we've followed in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series and it's astonishing how much capital they control these days.
Without further ado, here are the World's Largest Hedge Funds (in billions). Click the links below to be taken to our coverage of each respective hedge fund:
- J.P. Morgan $53.5
- Bridgewater Associates $43.6
- Paulson & Co. $32.0
- Brevan Howard $27.0
- Soros Fund Mgmt. $27.0
- Man Group $25.3
- Och-Ziff Capital Mgmt. Group $23.1
- D.E. Shaw Group* $23.0
- BlackRock (BGI) $21.0
- Farallon Capital Mgmt. $20.7
- Baupost Group** $20.0
- Goldman Sachs Asset Mgmt. $17.8
- BlueCrest Capital Mgmt. $17.3
- Canyon Partners $17.0
- Landsdowne Partners* $15.0
- Renaissance Technologies $15.0
- Fortress Investment Group $13.8
- Moore Capital Mgmt. $12.4
- Viking Global Investors* $12.4
- Citadel Investment Group $12.2
- SAC Capital Partners $12.0
- GLG Partners $11.5
- Tudor Investment Corp $10.0
Total $482.6
* as of Jan 1st, 2010
** as of Sept 30th, 2009
To see how many of these hedge funds have fared in the last year, head to our post on hedge fund performance numbers (as well as more here). Throughout the crisis, a few winners and losers emerged as it pertains to the assets under management (AUM) battle. Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates expanded by 21% and John Paulson's hedge fund firm Paulson & Co increased assets by 10%. On the losing side of things, Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital saw over a 40% decline in assets while Och-Ziff Capital Management dropped 30%. Many people probably wouldn't say "JPMorgan" when asked who the largest hedge fund in the world was. Maybe that's the reason why so many other long/short equity funds have sizable stakes in JPM.
Definitely check out the rest of Pensions&Investments research here and make sure to stay up to date with our coverage of hedge fund portfolios on a daily basis.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Value Investing Congress 33% Discount Expires Soon
The Value Investing Congress is quickly approaching and we wanted to remind everyone to take advantage of the 33% discount for our readers before it expires in 8 days. Simply put, it's the best investment conference out there as you'll hear insightful investment ideas and presentations from some of the top hedge fund and investment managers out there. Not to mention, it's a great networking opportunity. Market Folly readers can save 33% with discount code P10MF6.
Here's the list of prominent investors who will be presenting at the two-day event:
- Bruce Berkowitz, Fairholme Capital Management
- Eric Sprott, Sprott Asset Management
- John Burbank, Passport Capital
- Mohnish Pabrai, Pabrai Investment Funds
- Paul Sonkin, The Hummingbird Value Funds
- Thomas Russo, Gardner, Russo & Gardner
- David Nierenberg, The D3 Family Funds
- Lloyd Khaner, Khaner Capital
- J. Carlo Cannell, Cannell Capital
- Patrick Degorce, Thélème Partners
- Whitney Tilson & Glenn Tongue, T2 Partners
- Guy Spier, Aquamarine Fund
- Amitabh Singhi, Surefin Investments
- Richard Vogel, Alatus SA
And then here are the specifics for the Value Investing Congress event:
When: May 4th & 5th, 2010
Where: Pasadena, California at The Langham, Huntington Hotel & Spa
Discount: Market Folly readers click here to receive your $1,450 discount with code: P10MF6. Act quickly because the discount expires in 8 days.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Value Investing Congress 40% Discount: Save $1,750
If you missed the Value Investing Congress in October, here's your chance to attend the next one and at a substantial discount. The Value Investing Congress will be taking place for the second time this year where you can receive great investment ideas from some of the best investors out there.
When: May 4th & 5th, 2010
Where: Pasadena, California at The Langham, Huntington Hotel & Spa
Discount: We are proud to present that Market Folly readers save $1,750 off the regular price! Click here to receive your 40% discount to the Value Investing Congress. Use discount code: P10MF2 and hurry because this offer expires on December 15th!
If you're unfamiliar with the VIC, it is the premier conference to hear presentations and investment ideas from prominent money managers. In the past, speakers have included notable hedge fund managers such as Julian Robertson, David Einhorn, Bill Ackman, Eric Sprott and many more. To see the fantastic turnout and amazing speakers from the October event, check out the slideshow here. Over 40% of the seats to the May event have already been reserved, so act quickly. The $1,750 discount for Market Folly readers expires on December 15th, so you have one week to receive the biggest discount to the VIC. The closer we get to the event, the less discount you will receive. So, it's definitely in your best interest to register early and take advantage of the big savings! Give yourself an early holiday present or have your firm foot the bill. Use discount code: P10MF2.
... Read more about the VIC in May & register at a 40% discount!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Barron's Hedge Fund Rankings 2009: Top 100 List
Barron's is out with their annual hedge fund 100 list and we wanted to post up all the media relating to it. They mention that hedge fund assets plummeted from $1.9 trillion to $1.4 trillion throughout the course of 2008. That is a staggering number, but it definitely highlights the real problems the industry had during the year. While redemptions were fierce over the last year, reports are out saying that nearly 80% of redemption activity was high net worth and retail investors, rather than institutions. This will definitely be interesting as it could affect the health of the industry moving forwards. If institutions suddenly drop their allocations to hedge funds, then there will be big ramifications across the industry.
While many funds faltered, there have been a few all-stars over the past three years and Barron's highlights them on their list. Firstly, here's the hedge fund 100 list in it's entirety (RSS & Email readers may need to come to the blog to view the slidedeck). Or, you can download the .pdf here.
There is also a supplemental video below where the author/compiler of the list Jack Willoughby discusses the rankings and the hedge fund industry in its current state:
Barron's breaks down their top 100 hedge fund list by 3 year annualized returns. They rank by individual investment partnerships, so a couple of firms actually have multiple hedge funds on the list (like Paulson & Co, Galleon Group, etc). Barron's list does have a few criteria though, as they require a minimum AUM of $300 million and have excluded funds that invest in a single "sector, country, or region."
Overall though, the list is definitely a "who's who" of the hedge fund elite. John Paulson's Paulson & Co occupies the #1 and #4 slots, with a 62.67% and 46.81% 3 year annualized returns respectively. Of other hedge funds we cover on the blog, Shumway Capital has a fund listed at #11. Fellow Tiger Cub Paul Touradji has one of his funds in the #16 spot.
Some higher frequency trading firms are also high up on the list, including D.E. Shaw's Oculus fund at #21 and SAC Capital's International fund at #17. Noticeably absent from the list though, is Jim Simons' Renaissance Technologies. This is hard to believe, seeing how their prestigious and secretive Medallion fund returned 80% in 2008 and has one of the most pristine track records in all of hedgie-land. Maybe Barron's was tracking Rentec's sub-par performing funds like RIEF, which would explain their absence from the list. Medallion's exclusion, however, makes zero sense.
We've also noted that some funds who focus on macro trends are also ranked pretty highly. Passport Capital (John Burbank) is #24, Sprott Asset Management graces the list at #49, and George Soros' hedge fund is #46. In terms of true global macro firms, Moore Capital Management has a fund listed at #33. Keep in mind that we're just about to start our hedge fund portfolio tracking series, first quarter 2009 edition. We'll be updating the positions and portfolios of many of the funds ranked in the Top 100 to see what they've been up to, so make sure to check back daily.
Barron's isn't the only hedge fund ranking list out there, as Alpha had previously released their 2009 hedge fund rankings. The difference between the two lists is that Barron's is using a 3 year annualized return figure to gauge performance and rank accordingly. Alpha, on the other hand, simply aggregates assets under management (AUM) and then ranks from top to bottom. Obviously, many will argue that Barron's has the better gauge since they are using performance based metrics, and we'd tend to agree. The problem, though, is that they only use a 3 year annualized return. We'd prefer to use a 5 year or even 10 year period. That gets a little bit more complex and complicated as you would have some out-performing funds who only have shorter track records due to their inception dates. Overall though, Barron's and Alpha both present interesting lists.
Don't forget that you can get Barron's for 40% off right now and you can also view their top 100 article in its entirety.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Forbes' Billionaire List
Well, fresh off our posts on the Top25 highest paid hedge fund managers of 2008, as well as our biggest losers of 2008, we've stumbled upon Forbes' annual Billionaire List. The list encompasses all industries; but, as you can imagine, there are a lot of big hedge fund names on this list. Without further ado, the list of alternative managers on Forbes' list:
| Rank | Billionaire | Firm | Net Worth (billions) |
| 29 | George Soros | Soros Fund Management | $11 |
| 43 | Carl Icahn | Icahn Associates | $9 |
| 55 | James Simons | Renaissance Technologies | $8 |
| 76 | John Paulson | Paulson & Co. | $6 |
| 87 | Steven Cohen | SAC Capital Advisors | $5.5 |
| 164 | Stanley Druckenmiller | Duquesne Capital Management | $3.5 |
| 164 | Bruce Kovner | Caxton Associates | $3.5 |
| 164 | Daniel Ziff | Och-Ziff Capital Management | $3.5 |
| 164 | Dirk Ziff | Och-Ziff Capital Management | $3.5 |
| 164 | Robert Ziff | Och-Ziff Capital Management | $3.5 |
| 205 | Henry Kravis | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts | $3 |
| 205 | Sam Zell | Equity Group Investments | $3 |
| 224 | Paul Tudor Jones | Tudor Investment Corp. | $2.8 |
| 234 | John Arnold | Centaurus Energy Advisors | $2.7 |
| 246 | George Roberts | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts | $2.6 |
| 261 | Ray Dalio | Bridgewater Associates | $2.5 |
| 261 | Stephen Schwartzman | The Blackstone Group | $2.5 |
| 296 | Philip Falcone | Harbinger Capital Management | $2.3 |
| 334 | Tom Gores | Platinum Equity | $2 |
| 334 | Edward Lampert | ESL Investments | $2 |
| 334 | Daniel Och | Och-Ziff Capital Management | $2 |
| 334 | T. Boone Pickens | BP Capital | $2 |
| 450 | David Shaw | D.E. Shaw Group | $1.6 |
| 468 | Louis Bacon | Moore Capital Management | $1.5 |
| 468 | Israel Englander | Millennium Partners | $1.5 |
| 468 | Kenneth Griffin | Citadel Investment Group | $1.5 |
| 522 | William Conway | The Carlyle Group | $1.4 |
| 522 | Daniel D'Aniello | The Carlyle Group | $1.4 |
| 522 | Thomas Lee | Lee Equity Partners | $1.4 |
| 522 | David Rubenstein | The Carlyle Group | $1.4 |
| 559 | Alec Gores | Gores Group | $1.3 |
| 559 | Raj Rajaratnam | Galleon Group | $1.3 |
| 559 | Julian Robertson | Tiger Management | $1.3 |
| 559 | Wilbur Ross | WL Ross & Co. | $1.3 |
| 601 | Stephen Mandel | Lone Pine Capital | $1.2 |
| 601 | David Tepper | Appaloosa Management | $1.2 |
| 647 | Leon Black | Apollo Management | $1.1 |
| 647 | John Henry | John W. Henry & Co. | $1.1 |
| 647 | Marc Lasry | Avenue Capital Management | $1.1 |
| 701 | David Bonderman | TPG | $1 |
| 701 | Leon Cooperman | Omega Advisors | $1 |
| 701 | James Dinan | York Capital | $1 |
| 701 | Glenn Dubin | Highbridge Capital Management | $1 |
| 701 | Theodore Forstmann | Forstmann Little | $1 |
| 701 | Henry Swicea | Highbridge Capital Management | $1 |
As we said, some very familiar names fill up that list. To get a better idea as to how well their specific hedge funds are doing, check out Alpha's hedge fund rankings. And, for a list of those with converse fortunes, check out the recent list of 2008 hedge fund closures. In all, there are 793 richest men in the world, led by the #1 ranked Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft). In terms of the investment industry, 45 billionaires made the list.
Source: Forbes
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Top 25 Highest Paid Hedge Fund Managers of 2008
Alpha is out with their list of the 25 highest-earning managers of the past year. The average compensation was $464 million (no big deal), with many of the top managers earning north of $1 billion. These figures were calculated by taking the manager's management and performance fees, as well as gains made on their own money that is invested within their firm. This method of calculation has drawn some criticism, as they include the increase in value of personal investments, which technically could be considered not direct compensation. And, since there is no data on their bonuses etc etc, everyone could really just nitpick the whole ordeal. But, let's not go any further and just take a glance at what they've come up with:
(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)As you can see, some very well-known and prominent names on this list. In fact, we track many of the above mentioned funds on the blog and have already covered some of their Q4 holdings. Here are the latest equity portfolios:
- John Paulson's Paulson & Co
- George Soros' Soros Fund Management
- Bruce Kovner's Caxton Associates
- Jim Chanos' Kynikos Associates
- Paul Touradji's Touradji Capital Management (Q3)
- David Shaw's D.E. Shaw & Co (Q3)
- Jim Simons' Renaissance Technologies (Q3)
Make sure you also check out the hedge fund rankings as well. Alpha will also be posting the top losers of 2008 and we'll post that up once its released as well.
