98 - and putting it in danger of falling off the list next year. Its assets shrunk nearly 40 percent, to $4.9 billion, taking it down to No. Then there is Caxton Associates, now headed by Andrew Law. However, this suggests redemptions probably ranged between $1 billion and $2 billion over the past year, given that most of its major funds were up by double digits in 2017, and at least one was up in the low 20 percent range. Jamie Dinan’s York Capital Management Global Advisors posted a 5 percent increase in assets, from $16.2 billion to $17 billion. A big reason for the huge contraction: The Tiger Cub's macro and long-short equity firm has lost money in three of the four previous years.
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Robert Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management had just $5.7 billion under management at the beginning of this year, down sharply from $15 billion at the end of 2014, when it had nearly doubled assets over the previous year. Its assets peaked the following year at $36 billion. That’s a far cry from 2010, when the firm landed at No. 72, with $9 billion, after posting an 8 percent decline in assets from the previous ranking. Many other well-known names that once ranked among the world’s largest firms have sharply contracted in size this year. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life chasing the S&P 500 and focused on generating returns on investor capital,” Cooperman told clients when making his announcement. The firm’s recent legal woes caused assets to shrink below $4 billion, meaning the firm has not qualified for the Hedge Fund 100 for the past two years - underscoring how the fortunes of some of the hedge fund industry’s elder statesmen have fallen. In addition, Leon Cooperman recently announced he will convert Omega Advisors to a family office at year-end and return all outside capital. Yet last year many old, well-established firms continued to shrivel in size - or shut down altogether.įor example, since last year Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital Management shut down, while one firm on this year’s ranking - John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital - late last year announced plans to shut down. HFR’s asset weighted index of hedge funds gained 6.52 percent in 2017, while its fund weighted composite climbed 8.7 percent. Last year’s increase was no doubt driven in part by performance, given that the hedge fund industry enjoyed its best year since 2013.
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The 100 largest firms accounted for around 54 percent of the total $3.21 trillion in hedge funds as of year-end, according to data tracker HFR. This was up nearly 5 percent from the prior year, when total assets controlled by the top 100 firms had fallen by 1.2 percent. It manages the Eureka line of fundamentally driven funds as well as its TOPS range of systematic funds.Īltogether, the 100 largest hedge fund firms managed nearly 1.73 trillion at the end of 2017. The long-short firm, which several years ago sold a roughly 25 percent stake to private equity giant KKR, is something of a hybrid firm. London-based Marshall Wace moved into the top ten after growing assets more than 25 percent, to $32.6 billion, ranking No. 6 spot after growing assets 12.5 percent last year, to $39 billion.
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Shaw, a multistrategy firm that is known for its quantitative strategies, took the No. The quantitative giant founded by John Overdeck and David Siegel posted high single-digit returns in several key funds in 2017.ĭ.E. Two Sigma’s asset surge last year coincided with its weakest gains in recent memory. Just three years ago Renaissance ranked No. 3 from fourth place last year, while Two Sigma boosted its assets by 33.4 percent, to $52 billion, ranking No. Renaissance Technologies grew its assets by 35.7 percent, to $57 billion, moving up to No. The next three firms - also quant firms - enjoyed a huge surge in assets.ĪQR Capital Management boosted assets by 29 percent, to nearly $90 billion, enabling it to retain the No. It didn’t help that the firm’s main Pure Alpha funds only gained about 1.2 percent last year. However, its total hedge fund assets only grew by 2 percent last year. Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates, a mostly quant firm, retained the top spot for the eighth straight year with $124.7 billion.
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At the same time, many well-established, recognizable firms with long track records have once again suffered a sharp reduction in assets or are shutting down altogether. The four biggest hedge fund firms - and five of the six biggest - on this year’s ranking rely largely or fully on computers to make their investment decisions and have continued to attract assets in spite of underwhelming performance in some cases. The quants are still ruling the hedge fund world - at least when it comes to gathering assets.Ī handful of quantitative firms have continued to gobble up large sums of assets, catapulting many of them to the top of Institutional Investor’s 17th-annual Hedge Fund 100 ranking of the 100 largest hedge fund firms in the world as of year-end 2017.