Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (2024)

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (2)

Rebecca BaldridgeInvesting Writer

Rebecca Baldridge, CFA, is an investment professional and financial writer with over 20 years' experience in the financial services industry. In addition to a decade in banking and brokerage in Moscow, she has worked for Franklin Templeton Asset Management, The Bank of New York, JPMorgan Asset Management and Merrill Lynch Asset Management. She is a founding partner in Quartet Communications, a financial communications and content creation firm.

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Rebecca Baldridge

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (5)

Rebecca BaldridgeInvesting Writer

Rebecca Baldridge, CFA, is an investment professional and financial writer with over 20 years' experience in the financial services industry. In addition to a decade in banking and brokerage in Moscow, she has worked for Franklin Templeton Asset Management, The Bank of New York, JPMorgan Asset Management and Merrill Lynch Asset Management. She is a founding partner in Quartet Communications, a financial communications and content creation firm.

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Investing Writer

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (9)

Michael AdamsLead Editor, Investing

Michael Adams is lead editor, investing at Forbes Advisor. He's researched, written about and practiced investing for nearly two decades. As a writer, Michael has covered everything from stocks to cryptocurrency and ETFs for many of the world's major financial publications, including Kiplinger, U.S. News and World Report, The Motley Fool and more. Michael holds a master’s degree in philosophy from The New School for Social Research and an additional master's degree in Asian classics from St. John’s College.

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Reviewed

Michael Adams

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (12)

Michael AdamsLead Editor, Investing

Michael Adams is lead editor, investing at Forbes Advisor. He's researched, written about and practiced investing for nearly two decades. As a writer, Michael has covered everything from stocks to cryptocurrency and ETFs for many of the world's major financial publications, including Kiplinger, U.S. News and World Report, The Motley Fool and more. Michael holds a master’s degree in philosophy from The New School for Social Research and an additional master's degree in Asian classics from St. John’s College.

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Lead Editor, Investing

Reviewed

Updated: Apr 8, 2024, 8:15am

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Hedge funds are the ultimate asset class for ultra wealthy investors. Catering to the needs of high- and ultra-high net worth individuals, worldwide hedge funds manage more than $4 trillion in assets.

According to the Financial Times, the total number of hedge funds around the world is greater than the number of Burger King restaurants—30,077 funds compared to a mere 18,700 Burger Kings. Of this multitude of investment managers, a majority of 65% can be found in the United States.

Given that there are more hedge fund managers and hedge fund assets in the U.S. than any other country, we’ve put together a list of the top ten hedge fund managers in the U.S. based on total assets under management. Some of the names may be familiar, others less so, but together they manage almost a fifth of global hedge fund assets.

Read more

What Are the Biggest U.S. Hedge Funds?

Top U.S. Hedge FundsAUM

Bridgewater Associates

$124,317,200,000

Renaissance Technologies

$106,026,795,439

AQR Capital Management

$94,523,700,000

Two Sigma

$67,471,220,893

Millennium Management

$57,670,000,000

Citadel

$51,573,787,000

Tiger Global Management

$51,000,000,000

D.E. Shaw

$45,772,700,000

Coatue Management

$42,338,946,229

Davidson Kempner

$40,800,000,000

Bridgewater Associates

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (15)

AUM

$124,317,200,000

Headquarters

Westport, Conn.

Year Founded

1975

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (16)

$124,317,200,000

Westport, Conn.

1975

Editor's Take

In 1975, Bridgewater Associates was founded by Ray Dalio in his Manhattan apartment. Today Bridgewater is the largest hedge fund in the world and Dalio has a personal fortune of approximately $19 billion.

The fund serves institutional clients such as pension funds, foreign governments and central banks, as well as charitable foundations, family offices and high net worth individuals.

Strategies include actively invested Pure Alpha and Pure Alpha Major Markets, as well as its All Weather strategy, which focuses on asset allocation, and the related Optimal Portfolio.

As of early 2023, Bridgewater had raised $800 million for its new Defensive Alpha strategy, which is intended to help investors weather bear markets.

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (18)

$106,026,795,439

East Setauket, N.Y.

1982

Editor's Take

Renaissance Technologies was founded in 1982 by James Simons, a mathematician who worked as a code breaker during the Cold War.

The firm uses mathematical and statistical methods as the basis for its investment strategies. RenTec’s flagship Medallion fund, run primarily for employees, has one of the best track records in the industry.

Portfolios offered to outside investors include the Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund (RIEF) and Renaissance Institutional Diversified Alpha (RIDA).

Of the fund’s 300 employees, 90 hold doctoral degrees in mathematics, physics, computer science, or related fields.

AQR Capital Management

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (19)

AUM

$94,523,700,000

Headquarters

Greenwich, Conn.

Year Founded

1998

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (20)

$94,523,700,000

Greenwich, Conn.

1998

Editor's Take

AQR was founded in 1998 by Cliff Asness, David Kabiller, John Liew and Robert Krail. The firm’s name includes an acronym that stands for applied quantitative research, which is an apt descriptor for its strategy.

Offering its clients more than 40 diversified strategies across equity and alternatives, the firm applies the rigor of academic research to identifying long-term, repeatable sources of return.

AQR was a pioneer in factor investing, and it applies value, momentum, defensive, and carry styles to build portfolios that offer low correlation to traditional equity dominated strategies.

Two Sigma

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (21)

AUM

$67,471,220,893

Headquarters

New York, N.Y.

Year Founded

2001

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (22)

$67,471,220,893

New York, N.Y.

2001

Editor's Take

Two Sigma was founded by John Overdeck, David Siegel and Mark Pickard in 2001. The firm employs research methods inspired by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and distributed computing to support its trading strategies.

Following a disciplined, scientific approach, Two Sigma seeks to consistently generate alpha in liquid global markets across the range of market conditions. The firm has been recognized for generating unusually high returns.

Millennium Management

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (23)

AUM

$57,670,000,000

Headquarters

New York, NY

Year Founded

1989

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (24)

$57,670,000,000

New York, NY

1989

Editor's Take

Founded in 1989, Millennium pursues a diverse array of investment strategies across sectors, asset classes, and geographic regions.

The firm’s four primary strategies include fundamental equity, equity arbitrage, fixed income, and quant, with a variety of sub-strategies within each category.

The investment process is driven by over 200 independent portfolio management teams that pursue opportunities within their areas of expertise.

Citadel

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (25)

AUM

$51,573,787,000

Headquarters

Miami, FL

Year Founded

1990

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (26)

$51,573,787,000

Miami, FL

1990

Editor's Take

Citadel was founded in 1990 by Kenneth Griffin, who continues to serve as the firm’s CEO. With more than 350 investment professionals, Citadel invests in commodities, credit and convertibles, equities, global fixed income and macro, and global quantitative strategies.

One of the most profitable hedge funds of all times, Citadel generated $16 billion in profits for its investors in 2022, and earned $65.9 billion in net gains since 1990, making it the top-earning hedge fund ever.

Tiger Global Management

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (27)

AUM

$51,000,000,000

Headquarters

New York, NY

Year Founded

2001

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (28)

$51,000,000,000

New York, NY

2001

Editor's Take

Tiger Global Management was founded in 2001 by Chase Coleman III as Tiger Technology to invest in the public equity market. Coleman was a protege of Tiger Management’s Julian Robertson, and received $25 million from Robertson to start Tiger Technology.

This hedge fund focuses on public and private companies in the global Internet, software, consumer, and financial technology industries. The public equity business takes a fundamentally oriented, long-term approach to investment and seeks to identify high-quality companies that benefit from powerful secular growth trends and superior management.

D.E. Shaw

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (29)

AUM

$45,772,700,000

Headquarters

New York, NY

Year Founded

1988

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (30)

$45,772,700,000

New York, NY

1988

Editor's Take

D.E. Shaw was founded by David Shaw in 1988, starting out with only six employees. A pioneer in the field of computational finance and quantitative investing, the firm has over 2000 employees today, 80 of whom hold doctoral degrees.

This hedge fund uses strategies based on rigorous analysis and scientific research, and aims to identify market inefficiencies through qualitative, quantitative and advanced computational methods. It invests in a broad array of asset classes spanning public and private markets, emphasizing a collaborative approach to investing.

Coatue Management

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (31)

AUM

$42,338,946,229

Headquarters

New York, NY

Year Founded

1999

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (32)

$42,338,946,229

New York, NY

1999

Editor's Take

Coatue is a technology-focused hedge fund founded by Philippe Laffont in 1999. The firm invests in both public and private markets with its principal focus on the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors, and the healthcare and consumer segments in addition.

Coatue employs more than 50 investment professionals and 24 data scientists and engineers. Their private investment portfolio includes more than 200 technology companies.

Davidson Kempner

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (33)

AUM

$40,800,000,000

Headquarters

New York, NY

Year Founded

1983

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (34)

$40,800,000,000

New York, NY

1983

Editor's Take

Davidson Kempner was founded in 1983 by Marvin Davidson. The firm employs a bottom-up, fundamental approach to investing, with a focus on event-driven and multi-strategy approaches.

Investing globally, Davidson Kempner focuses on risk management and capital preservation, and invests opportunistically in both the public and private markets in a variety of credit and equity strategies as well as in real assets.

*AUM data current as of December 31, 2022, except Davidson Kempner, which effective January 31, 2023.

What Is a Hedge Fund?

A hedge fund is an alternative investment vehicle that pools capital from accredited investors and institutional investors to pursue a variety of investment strategies.

Hedge funds are a bit like mutual funds, since they’re pooled investment vehicles. But that’s where the similarities end. They’re usually organized as private partnerships, with a general partner who’s responsible for making investment decisions.

Hedge funds are designed to achieve high absolute returns, regardless of market conditions, and they can employ a wide variety of risky investment strategies to do so. They invest in any type of asset, provided it’s consistent with their mandate.

How Do Hedge Funds Work?

Hedge funds employ a wide range of investment strategies, and they generally aim to outperform traditional investment vehicles like mutual funds. Strategies can include positions in stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, derivatives and alternative assets.

The name of this type of fund comes from one of their core investing approaches: Taking both long and short positions in various asset classes that yield profits no matter where broader markets are going—hedging their bets, as it were.

Here’s an example: Interest rates were rising throughout 2022, so a hedge fund might have chosen to go long on defensive stocks in the healthcare sector, and short stocks in the consumer discretionary sector, which were more sensitive to more expensive consumer credit costs.

Hedge funds pursue active portfolio management by default, making tactical shifts based on market conditions in an attempt to widely outperform common benchmarks like the S&P 500.

Funds typically charge a performance fee and a management fee, typified by the “two and 20” approach. The management fee is usually a fixed percentage of the assets under management—2%, for instance.
The performance fee is a percentage of the fund’s profits—typically 20%—providing an incentive for the managers to generate positive returns.

Hedge Funds Are Risky Investments

Access to hedge funds is limited to accredited investors and large institutional clients who understand the risks involved. That’s in part because they are subject to less regulatory oversight than traditional investment vehicles like mutual funds.

While they are well known for their potential to generate higher returns compared to traditional investments, this often comes as a consequence of taking on much more investing risk due to strategic choice, the use of leverage and the inherent volatility of the markets they operate in.

Due to their specialized nature and potential risks, investing in hedge funds often requires a significant amount of capital, expertise, and understanding of the specific fund’s investment strategy.

Individuals considering hedge fund investments should conduct thorough due diligence, carefully assess their risk tolerance, and consider seeking advice from financial professionals who specialize in alternative investments.

How to Invest in Hedge Funds

Since hedge funds pursue absolute returns regardless of market conditions, they can be a very enticing prospect for investors who seek to maximize returns. That puts them out of reach for most regular investors.

There are alternative mutual funds and ETFs available to retail investors that invest in hedge funds. Since these are publicly traded, they are registered with and regulated by the SEC. You can search online and use services like Morningstar to find these alternative products.

While these products may be available to retail investors, don’t be fooled. They’re still highly complex investments and it’s vital to do your research. Investors considering this asset class should consider working with a professional financial advisor. With the right advice and extensive due diligence, alternative investments may offer a benefit to your portfolio.

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Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024 (2024)

FAQs

Top 10 U.S. Hedge Funds Of April 2024? ›

SEC Filings:Hedge funds managing more than $100 million in assets are required to file quarterly reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports, known as Form 13F filings, disclose the fund's holdings, including stocks.

What are the top hedge funds buying right now? ›

Largest Hedge Fund Buys
StockCompany NameTotal Value Bought
SPYSpdr S&p 500 Etf Tr$ 35.90B
AAPLApple Inc$ 29.87B
AMZNAmazon Com Inc$ 24.10B
IVVIshares Tr$ 21B
87 more rows

How to find out what hedge funds are buying? ›

SEC Filings:Hedge funds managing more than $100 million in assets are required to file quarterly reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports, known as Form 13F filings, disclose the fund's holdings, including stocks.

Which hedge fund returns the most? ›

Billionaire Christopher Hohn's TCI led the annual ranking by 2023 returns, which were $12.9 billion after fees, while Citadel, Millennium Management and D. E. Shaw, all multi-strategy firms, were the top three hedge funds by lifetime gains.

What are hedge funds buying in 2024? ›

Trends Shaping the Hedge Fund Industry in 2024

AI has been the buzz term for the last few years. This is the year where AI will go from excitement to practical application. Hedge funds are likely to invest heavily in technology to enhance their trading strategies, risk management, and operational efficiency.

What is the most successful hedge fund in the US? ›

Kenneth Griffin

Citadel has now made $74 billion for investors since its inception in 1990, more than any other hedge fund firm.

What is the largest hedge fund in the world 2024? ›

As of 2024, Citadel, founded by Ken Griffin, is the largest hedge fund in the world, managing over $300 billion in assets.

What is the number one hedge fund? ›

What are the Largest 100 Hedge Funds Ranked by AUM?
RankFirm NameADV Filing Date
1Millennium Management09/26/2023
2Citadel Advisors07/07/2023
3Bridgewater Associates04/21/2023
4Balyasny Asset Management05/18/2023
60 more rows

What is better than hedge fund? ›

Investments made by hedge funds are short-term, meaning investors can see returns quickly. On the other hand, private equity firms often make long-term investments, and investors may wait years before seeing returns. The paths into private equity vs.

Is my money safe in a hedge fund? ›

While hedge funds are only lightly regulated and carry high inherent risks, funds of hedge funds are thought to offer security because professional managers are picking the hedge funds that make up the pools.

Should I put my money in a hedge fund? ›

Hedge funds offer the potential for high returns and diversification benefits, but they also come at the cost of higher fees and less regulatory oversight. As with any investment, you should do your own research to determine whether they make sense for your portfolio.

What is the annual return of a hedge fund? ›

The average annual return on investment for hedge funds varies widely depending on the fund's strategy, market conditions, and the skill of the fund managers. Historically, it's been around 6-8%, but this can fluctuate significantly.

What is the most successful hedge fund ever? ›

Citadel has generated roughly $74 billion in total gains since its inception in 1990, making it the most successful hedge fund of all time.

What is the 2 20 rule for hedge funds? ›

The 2 and 20 is a hedge fund compensation structure consisting of a management fee and a performance fee. 2% represents a management fee which is applied to the total assets under management. A 20% performance fee is charged on the profits that the hedge fund generates, beyond a specified minimum threshold.

Do hedge funds do well in a recession? ›

According to the data, hedge funds collectively outperformed the broader stock market during down months in the last four recessionary periods (acknowledging that the most recent, two-month-long, COVID-fueled recession contained only one month of equity decline — albeit steep).

What companies are hedge funds buying? ›

Most Bought by Hedge Funds
  • HDB58.340.01% HDFC Bank Limited.
  • APH120.491.48% Amphenol Corporation.
  • SNOW158.135.63% Snowflake Inc.
  • D50.45-0.52% Dominion Energy, Inc.
  • CNM57.320.57% Core & Main, Inc.
  • AS15.040.49% Amer Sports, Inc.
  • EPRT25.69-0.04% Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc.
  • NABL12.400.18% N-able, Inc.

What is the most popular hedge fund stock? ›

Some of the most owned stocks by hedge funds include NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

What are hedge funds buying and selling? ›

Normally, the prices of the bonds and shares trade in a close relationship. Sometimes bond and stock market conditions cause the prices to get out of line. Hedge funds buy and sell the bonds and stocks simultaneously, pushing the prices back into line and profiting from market mispricing. Distressed securities.

Which stocks are most bought by mutual funds? ›

HDFC Life, Adani Enterprises, Britannia, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Wipro were the most bought Nifty50 stocks by mutual funds in February 2024, while n Devyani Intl, Indus Towers, Godrej Properties, Aditya Birla Capital, and Oil India were the most bought in the mid-cap space, shows data analysed by brokerage Motilal ...

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