BOSTON (Reuters) – The 20 best-performing hedge funds in the world made $ 63.5 billion for clients in 2020, a record for the past 10 years in a chaotic time when technology-focused stocks led a dramatic rebound from a pandemic sell-off, LCH Investment Data Show see.
As a group, the most successful managers earned half of the $ 127 billion all hedge funds earned last year, reported LCH Investments, a performance-tracking fund company that is part of the Edmond de Rothschild group.
Despite the pandemic that caused a historic stock market sell-off in March, closing major sectors of the economy and consuming millions of jobs, the top 20 hedge funds outperformed returns of $ 59.3 billion in 2019. That was despite 2020 not being as profitable as the previous year for hedge funds as a whole, with profits dropping from $ 178 billion in 2019.
According to data from Hedge Fund Research, the average hedge fund delivered an 11.6% return in 2020, which is lagging behind the 16% gain on the S&P 500 index.
“The net profit that the top 20 managers generated for their investors, of $ 63.5 billion, was the highest in a decade. In that sense, 2020 was the year of the hedge fund, ”said Rick Sopher, LCH chairman, in a statement.
Last year’s top earners include Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global, which made $ 10.4 billion, Israel Englander’s Millennium, which made $ 10.2 billion, and Steve Mandel’s Lone Pine at $ 9.1 billion. According to data from LCH, Viking Global Investors of Andreas Halvorsen made $ 7.0 billion and Ken Griffin’s Citadel $ 6.2 billion.
Founded in 1975, Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates has held the # 1 rankings since its inception, with $ 46.5 billion earned even after a horrible 2020 where LCH data shows Dalio lost $ 12.1 billion.
George Soros’ Soros Fund Management, which no longer manages money for external clients, remained at number 2, followed by Mandel, Griffin and executives at DE Shaw who rounded out the top five performers of all time.
In 2020 only Paulson & Co. From Dalio and John Paulson, who made billions on housing bets during the financial crisis, money, the data shows.
Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, often ranked among the world’s most successful funds for its Medallion portfolio returns, dropped out of the top 20 performers after the funds it offers to outsiders fell between 20% and 30% last year.
“Circumstances favored the human over the machine and it was remarkable that Renaissance Technologies, a machine-driven manager, dropped out of the top 20,” said Sopher.
Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Daniel Wallis