A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as short selling, leverage, and derivatives. Financial regulators generally restrict hedge fund marketing to institutional investors, high net worth individuals, and accredited investors.
D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. is a multinational investment management firm founded in 1988 by David E. Shaw and based in New York City. The company is known for developing complicated mathematical models and sophisticated computer programs to exploit anomalies in the financial market. As of June 1, 2021, D. E. Shaw manages $55 billion in AUM, $35 billion of which are alternative investments and the remaining $20 billion long-oriented investments. In 2018, Institutional Investor reported that among hedge funds, D. E. Shaw had delivered the fifth-highest returns in the world since its inception.
In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, measures the total market value of all the financial assets which an individual or financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institution—or a decentralized network protocol controls, typically on behalf of a client. Funds may be managed for clients, platform users, or solely for themselves, such as in the case of a financial institution which has mutual funds or holds its own venture capital. The definition and formula for calculating AUM may differ from one entity to another.
Global macro is an investment strategy based on the interpretation and prediction of large-scale events related to national economies, history, and international relations. The strategy typically employs forecasts and analysis of interest rate trends, international trade and payments, political changes, government policies, inter-government relations, and other broad systemic factors.
A quantitative fund is an investment fund that uses quantitative investment management instead of fundamental human analysis.
Brevan Howard is a European hedge fund management company based in Jersey with its funds domiciled in the Cayman Islands. Brevan Howard was founded in 2002 by Alan Howard, alongside four other co-founders including Chris Rokos, and is widely considered to be one of the top global macro hedge funds.
Moore Capital Management LP (MCM) is a New York-based, global investment management firm headquartered in New York, New York. In September 2018, MCM had $10.2 billion in total assets under management.
Clarium Capital Management LLC was an American investment management and hedge fund company pursuing a global macro strategy. It was founded in San Francisco in 2002 by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook. Its assets under management grew to $8 billion in 2008, after which a series of unprofitable investments and client redemptions shrank that to about $350 million as of 2011.
Clifford Scott Asness is an American hedge fund manager and the co-founder of AQR Capital Management. According to an April 2020 Forbes profile, Asness' estimated net worth was $2.6 billion.
Winton Group, Ltd is a British investment management firm founded by David Harding. In the United States, Winton is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment advisor and with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a CTA, and is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. The company trades on more than 100 global futures markets in a wide variety of asset classes and on global equity markets. The firm was launched with $1.6 million in 1997, reached a peak of $28.5 billion in assets under advisement, before dropping to 7.3 billion by late 2020. Winton Group has six offices around the world: London, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, and Abu Dhabi.
Brandywine Asset Management, Inc. is an American investment management firm founded and managed by Michael Dever. The firm is registered as a commodity trading advisor.
Cantab Capital Partners is a hedge fund based in Cambridge, England, co-founded by Dr. Ewan Kirk and Erich Schlaikjer. Cantab operates quantitative funds using computer models to drive investment decisions. As of Feb 2015 Cantab had $4.5 billion in assets under management, after launching with $30 million in 2006. The firm takes its name from Cantabrigia, the medieval Latin name for Cambridge. It is regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority. Cantab Capital Partners was acquired by GAM in 2016 and is since part of GAM Systematic.
Millennium Management is an investment management firm with a multistrategy hedge fund offering. It is one of the world's largest alternative asset management firms with over $58.9 billion assets under management as of June 2023. The firm operates in America, Europe and Asia.
Quantedge Capital is an alternative investment asset manager based in Singapore and New York City. It manages over US$2 billion under its flagship Quantedge Global Fund primarily on behalf of high-net-worth individuals, family offices and institutions.
Element Capital Management is an American hedge fund using a global macroeconomic investment strategy, founded in 2005 by Jeffrey Talpins.
Discretionary investment management is a form of professional investment management in which investments are made on behalf of clients through a variety of securities. The term "discretionary" refers to investment decisions being made by the investment manager based on the investment manager's judgement rather than under the direction of the client. The major aim of the services offered is to outperform benchmarks listed in the mandate; this is called providing alpha.
WorldQuant, LLC is an international hedge fund and quantitative investment management firm headquartered in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. Founded in 2007, the firm is currently managing approximately $9 billion in assets under management for Millennium Management via quantitative trading and other methods of quantitative investing. WorldQuant operated the WorldQuant Challenge, where participants compete in the field of quantitative finance, and WorldQuant Accelerator, an independent portfolio manager platform. In 2015 the WorldQuant Foundation launched WorldQuant University.
Geode Capital Management, LLC (Geode) is an American investment management firm based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Universa Investments ("Universa") is an American investment management firm headquartered in Miami, Florida. It is known as a Black Swan fund that focuses on risk mitigation to protect investors from sharp market downturns.
