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 others who are considered sufficiently sophisticated.
Renaissance Technologies LLC, also known as RenTech or RenTec, is an American hedge fund based in East Setauket, New York, on Long Island, which specializes in systematic trading using quantitative models derived from mathematical and statistical analysis. Their signature Medallion fund is famed for the best record in investing history. Renaissance was founded in 1982 by James Simons, a mathematician who formerly worked as a code breaker during the Cold War.
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. D. E. Shaw & Co. 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 & Co. had delivered the fifth-highest returns in the world since its inception.
Steven A. Cohen is an American hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball. Cohen and the New York Mets finalized a deal on September 14, 2020, to become majority owner, owning roughly 97.2% of the team. He is the founder of hedge fund Point72 Asset Management and now-closed S.A.C. Capital Advisors, both based in Stamford, Connecticut.
James Harris Simons is an American mathematician, billionaire hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is the founder of Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund based in East Setauket, New York. He and his fund are known to be quantitative investors, using mathematical models and algorithms to make investment gains from market inefficiencies. Due to the long-term aggregate investment returns of Renaissance and its Medallion Fund, Simons is described as the "greatest investor on Wall Street," and more specifically "the most successful hedge fund manager of all time."
Kenneth Cordele Griffin is an American hedge fund manager, entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder, chief executive officer, co-chief investment officer, and 80% owner of Citadel LLC, a multinational hedge fund. He also owns Citadel Securities, the largest market maker in the U.S.
An alternative investment is an investment in any asset class excluding stocks, bonds, and cash. The term is a relatively loose one and includes tangible assets such as precious metals, collectibles and some financial assets such as real estate, commodities, private equity, distressed securities, hedge funds, exchange funds, carbon credits, venture capital, film production, financial derivatives, cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, and tax receivable agreements. Investments in real estate, forestry and shipping are also often termed "alternative" despite the ancient use of such real assets to enhance and preserve wealth. Alternative investments are to be contrasted with traditional investments.
Seth Andrew Klarman is an American billionaire investor, hedge fund manager, and author. He is a proponent of value investing. He is the chief executive and portfolio manager of the Baupost Group, a Boston-based private investment partnership he founded in 1982.
Raymond Thomas Dalio is an American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager, who has served as co-chief investment officer of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, since 1985. He founded Bridgewater in 1975 in New York. Within ten years, it was infused with a $5 million investment from the World Bank's retirement fund. Dalio is regarded as one of the greatest innovators in the finance world, having popularized many commonly used practices, such as risk parity, currency overlay, portable alpha and global inflation-indexed bond management.
Brevan Howard is a European hedge fund management company based in Jersey with its funds domiciled in the Cayman islands. The company was co-founded by Alan Howard and four others in 2002. It was once described as one of the largest "macro hedge funds" in the world with $40 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of October 2013 before downsizing to $18 billion in 2016. As of June 2019, the firm manages $7 billion. By September 2020, the fund was managing around $10-billion in investor assets across its six offices globally.
Michael James Burry is an American investor, hedge fund manager, and physician. He founded the hedge fund Scion Capital, which he ran from 2000 until 2008, before closing it to focus on his personal investments. He is best known for being amongst the first investors to predict and profit from the subprime mortgage crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010.
Clifford Scott Asness is an American hedge fund manager and the co-founder of AQR Capital Management.
Highfields Capital Management LP is a hedge fund founded in 1998 which had assets of $12.1 billion in 2018. The annualized net returns during the firm's first 20 years were more than 10%.
Ole Andreas Halvorsen is a Norwegian-born hedge fund manager. He is the CEO and a co-founder of the Connecticut-based hedge fund, Viking Global Investors. Viking had $24 billion under management as of October, 2017. Halvorsen has consistently ranked among the top earning hedge fund managers, placing 11th in Forbes' 2012 rankings and 9th in 2015, according to Institutional Investor's Alpha.
BlueCrest Capital Management is a British-American hedge fund which was founded by British billionaire Michael Platt and American William Reeves in 2000. The New York City-based company has registered offices in Geneva, Singapore, Boston, Connecticut, Toronto, São Paulo, Hong Kong and Jersey. BlueCrest Capital Management is Europe’s third-biggest hedge-fund firm, managing over £30 billion. The firm's employees are estimated to number c.600.
Michael Edward Platt is a British billionaire hedge fund manager. He is the co-founder and managing director of BlueCrest Capital Management, Europe's third-largest hedge-fund firm which he co-founded in 2000.
Mudrick Capital Management is an investment firm specializing in special situations and event driven investing. The firm was founded by Jason Mudrick, its current Chief Investment Officer, in 2009. The firm is located in New York City and, as of December 2021, managed approximately $3.6 billion in assets.
Melvin Capital Management LP is an American investment management firm based in New York City. It was founded in 2014 by Gabriel Plotkin, who named the firm after his late grandfather.
Visium Asset Management LP was an American multi-strategy hedge fund. It began as a healthcare-focused hedge fund, founded in 2005 by Jacob Gottlieb. Visium controlled investment funds with about $8 billion of assets under management and had 170 employees at its peak in 2016. That year, three of the company's traders were indicted by United States federal authorities for securities fraud. One of the accused employees killed himself days after he was indicted. Visium subsequently liquidated several of its funds and wound down operations.
