Top 10 Hedge Fund Managers for 2010

It’s always a good idea to see what kind of money the top hedge fund managers are earning. It helps to think big. But dig a little deeper and see what type of strategy the top 10 earning hedge fund managers for 2010 are using. It can help give you a little bit of clarity to which type of strategy you should pursue. In a world filled with information overload and all sorts of crazy trading systems and ideas here are the guys who made billions.

Here is the list available at from the NY times website. Top Earning Hedge Fund Managers 2010 – SlideShow

Here is the quick rundown:

John Paulson – $4.9 billion
Ray Dalio – $3.1 billion
James Simons – $2.5 billion
David Tepper – $2.2 billion
Steven A. Cohen – $1.3 billion
Edward S. Lampert – $1.1 billion
Carl Icahn – $900 million
Bruce Kovner – $640 million
George Soros – $450 million
Paul Tudor Jones – $440 million

Now let us see what type of strategies they use. I have done the research and labeled them according to their strategy.

John Paulson – Global Macro, Merger Arbitrage
Ray Dalio – Global Macro
James Simons – Quant, (Global Macro before he turned quant)
David Tepper – Value, Distressed Debt
Steven A. Cohen – Long/Short Equity
Edward S. Lampert – Contrarian Investing, Value
Carl Icahn – Corporate Raider
Bruce Kovner – Global Macro
George Soros – Global Macro
Paul Tudor Jones – Global Macro

As you can see at least 5 people on the list use some sort of global macro strategy. This gives you proof that it works, if you do it right. Notice how none of these guys are using FAP TURBO forex robot, moving averages stochastic, technical indicator junk. They aren’t using ichimoku kinko hyo. You think they know something?

Now that James Simons guy has an interesting story. He is a quant now, but many years ago he used to be a discretionary global macro trader. That was back in the 1970’s. Eventually he decided to model the data and made the shift from the macro world to entering the quant world. How do I know this? Well you can read the interview he did with Absolute Return magazine right here: James Simons | AR Absolute Return

There are also many other interviews in that Traders Hall of Fame including Paul Tudor Jones, Bruce Kovner, Louis Bacon, George Soros and many more! It is sort of like a mini market wizards interview. Check them out!

Steven Cohen | AR Absolute Return

Kenneth Griffin | AR Absolute Return

Paul Tudor Jones | AR Absolute Return

Alfred Winslow Jones | AR Absolute Return

Bruce Kovner | AR Absolute Return

Seth Klarman | AR Absolute Return

Leon Levy | AR Absolute Return

Jack Nash | AR Absolute Return

Julian Robertson | AR Absolute Return

George Soros | AR Absolute Return

Michael Steinhardt | AR Absolute Return

David Swenson | AR Absolute Return