Who was the greatest hedge fund manager of all time? And the man that brought me to Manhattan... (2024)

Who was the greatest hedge fund manager of all time? And the man that brought me to Manhattan... (1)

  • Report this article

Thomas Baade-Mathiesen Who was the greatest hedge fund manager of all time? And the man that brought me to Manhattan... (2)

Thomas Baade-Mathiesen

The Sustainability Strategist | Greening Corporations, Private Equity & Real Estate Investments for Higher Returnsđź—˝

Published May 17, 2024

+ Follow

“You get smart people together. You give them a lot of freedom. Create an atmosphere where everyone talks to everyone else. They’re not hiding in a corner with their own little thing. They talk to everybody else. And you provide the best infrastructure, the best computers and so on that people can work with. And make everyone partners.”

I want to give a nod to the legendary Jim Simons, who passed away last week at 86. Often called "the most successful hedge fund manager of all time," Jim was a titan whose influence brought me to Manhattan.

While Jim didn't personally bring me here, the startup he helped start and oversee, Gradian Health Systems, did. Our conversations, especially his sockless feet in loafers even on cold winter days, were unforgettable.

Recommended by LinkedIn

Billionaire Founder Of World's Largest Hedge Fund Says… Bill Koza 6 years ago
Decision Guru And Hedge Fund Billionaire Ray Dalio Is… Erik Larson 5 years ago
Why You Don't Bet Against Warren Buffet Andy Hart - Financial Adviser 6 years ago

Gradian Health Systems paved the way for an influential chapter in my life. During my last MBA semester at Massachusetts Institute of Technology , I dove into the global health space. This adventure took my team to Zambia to assess Gradian's market potential. Our findings engaged Gradian's leadership at their HQ behind the Flatiron Building and Madison Square. I was invited to turn our plan into reality, spending the next year establishing Gradian's presence in Zambia. Two years later, our solution won an award to equip over 30 Zambian hospitals, addressing the critical issue of safe anaesthesia access with innovative approaches and machines that operated manually during power cuts and concentrated their own oxygen. Jim and Gradian had given me a crash course in building holistic systems with broad reach and very real consequences.

Jim's impact on me extended beyond Gradian. He generated annual average returns of 66% between 1988 and 2018, outperforming icons like Warren Buffett and Ray Dalio. Standing in the same room as him, you could feel the weight of his success. Had we only invested with him...! $1,000 in Renaissance Technologies LLC 's Medallion Fund 20 years ago would have turned $1M now.

Jim would invite us to fascinating lectures by world-leading experts and even fly us out to an annual nature retreat. Picture diving into the still waters of a distant island, discovering skates, small sharks, and turtles swimming around.

His entrepreneurial journey inspires me even more today as I navigate the roller coaster of setting up a firm.

In 1978, at 40, after an already accomplished career as a Cold War code cracker (until he was dismissed for his opinions against the Vietnam War) and academic at MIT, Harvard, and Stony Brook, he surprised many by leaving academia to start an investment firm in a dreary Long Island strip mall next to a clothes shop and a pizza joint. Early on, he traded like most, reading the news and betting on investments but found it stressful. “Fundamental trading gave me ulcers,” he once said. Persistence and contrarian thinking led him to gradually develop an automated trading system that revolutionized the market.

With the unfathomable amounts of money he generated from beating Wall Street traders, Jim became a philanthropist, supporting science, health, and education through the Simons Foundation and backing Democratic candidates. Together with his wife, Marilyn, he championed initiatives ranging from Math for America, and the The New York Climate Exchange Center on Governors Island to helping people with autism enjoy better lives, and the The Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life.

In a 2019 speech, Jim advised MIT students to “Be guided by beauty. It can be a way a company runs, or the way an experiment comes out, or the way a theorem comes out, but there’s a sense of beauty when something is working well, almost an aesthetic to it.”

May his legacy of being guided by beauty inspire us to create a more graceful world, one clever solution at a time.

Help improve contributions

Mark contributions as unhelpful if you find them irrelevant or not valuable to the article. This feedback is private to you and won’t be shared publicly.

Contribution hidden for you

This feedback is never shared publicly, we’ll use it to show better contributions to everyone.

Like
Comment

21

To view or add a comment, sign in

Sign in

Stay updated on your professional world

Sign in

By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy.

New to LinkedIn? Join now

Insights from the community

  • Sales Management What objections might you encounter when selling to hedge funds?
  • Sales Management How can you use analytics to understand hedge fund clients?
  • Investment Banking What is the best way to measure market risk for hedge funds?
  • Financial Management How do you become a fund manager?
  • Business Management What are the best ways to prepare for operational due diligence in hedge funds?
  • Investment Banking You're interested in investing, but what's the difference between a mutual fund and an ETF?
  • Economics How can you evaluate a mutual fund's performance?
  • Investment Banking What are the best practices for using risk-adjusted performance evaluation with mutual funds?
  • Analytical Skills What are the best practices for data analysis in hedge funds?

Others also viewed

  • THE ORCHARD- How I Started A Hedge Fund That Returned 106% in 2013 Brad Hart 6y
  • Quick Hits: Memento Mori | Historic Cash | Hedge fund Burgers Cory 📢 Swain 1y
  • Dry powder up and seeders bullish amid tough hedge fund terrain Paul McMillan 7y
  • Letter From a Failing Hedge Fund Manager Spencer Jakab 6y
  • CARL ICAHN MOVING HEDGE FUND TO MIAMI, WHETHER HIS WORKERS LIKE IT OR NOT Ivor ALEX 4y
  • Story of the Week by Stratzy Stratzy 2y
  • Round Up of Hedge Fund Insight Sept 10th Simon Kerr 7y
  • Rad Reads, Volume 69 Khemaridh (Khe) Hy 8y
  • At Your Service... Meredith Jones 8y
  • Hedge Funds, Portfolio Managers and the curious case of mister Gage Vincenzo Riflesso 3y

Explore topics

  • Sales
  • Marketing
  • Business Administration
  • HR Management
  • Content Management
  • Engineering
  • Soft Skills
  • See All
Who was the greatest hedge fund manager of all time? And the man that brought me to Manhattan... (2024)

FAQs

Who is the most successful hedge fund manager in history? ›

  1. Warren Buffett. Bloomberg via Getty Images. ...
  2. George Soros. The Hungarian-born magnate is the chairman of Soros Fund Management and founder of Quantum Fund. ...
  3. Ray Dalio. ...
  4. John Paulson. ...
  5. Seth Klarman. ...
  6. David Tepper. ...
  7. Steve Cohen. ...
  8. Andreas Halvorsen.

Who is the legendary hedge fund manager? ›

Jim Simons, the legendary hedge-fund manager who cracked the market, dead at 86. Jim Simons, the billionaire hedge-fund manager, has died. The legendary investor was 86. Simons founded Renaissance Technologies and was a codebreaker, mathematician, and philanthropist.

Who is the richest hedge fund manager in the world? ›

Who Is the Richest Hedge Fund Manager? Ken Griffin of Citadel is both the richest hedge fund manager and the highest paid. In 2022, he earned $41. billion, and by the beginning of 2023 his net worth was estimated at $35 billion.

What is the biggest hedge fund in the world? ›

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.

Who is the smartest hedge fund manager ever? ›

Due to the long-term aggregate investment returns of Renaissance and its Medallion Fund, Simons was described as the "greatest investor on Wall Street," and more specifically "the most successful hedge fund manager of all time". Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

Who was the original hedge fund manager? ›

Australian investor Alfred Winslow Jones is credited with launching the first hedge fund in 1949 through his company, A.W. Jones & Co. Raising $100,000, he designed a fund that aimed to minimize the risk in long-term stock investing by short-selling, now referred to as the long/short equities model.

Who is the founder of the world's biggest hedge fund? ›

Ray Dalio is the founder, chair and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, a global leader in institutional portfolio management and the largest hedge fund in the world.

Why are hedge fund managers so rich? ›

Hedge fund managers typically earn above-average compensation, often from a two-and-twenty fee structure. Hedge fund managers typically specialize in a particular investment strategy that they then use to power their fund portfolio's mandate for profits.

What is the greatest hedge fund ever? ›

Best Hedge Funds of All Time
  • Steinhardt Partners. Founded: 1967. Net Gains Since Inception: $14.8 Billion. ...
  • Tudor Investment Corp. Founded: 1980. ...
  • Third Point. Founded: 1995. ...
  • Icahn Capital LP. Founded: 1987. ...
  • Brevan Howard. Founded: 2002. ...
  • Sculptor Capital. Founded: 1994. ...
  • Tiger Management. Founded: 1980. ...
  • Lone Pine Capital. Founded: 1997.
Sep 16, 2023

Was Jeff Bezos a hedge fund manager? ›

Jeff Bezos, seen outside a library in France in the early years of Amazon, left his job at a quantitative hedge fund to start up Amazon as an online bookseller just as the internet was taking off in the 1990s.

How much do most hedge fund managers make? ›

The money is a big draw as well: if you're at the right fund and you perform well, you can earn into the mid-six-figures, up to $1 million+, even as a junior-level employee. The top individual Portfolio Managers can earn hundreds of millions or billions each year.

How much money do you need to invest in a hedge fund? ›

It is not uncommon for a hedge fund to require at least $100,000 or even as much as $1 million to participate. Unlike mutual funds, hedge funds avoid many of the regulations and requirements within the Securities Act of 1933.

How many hedge fund billionaires are there? ›

In total, Forbes counts 47 hedge fund billionaires who have a combined net worth of $312 billion, up slightly from the same number in 2022 who were worth $310 billion.

What state has the most hedge funds? ›

California (4,432 businesses), Texas (3,467 businesses) and New York (2,730 businesses) are the States with the most number of Hedge Funds businesses in the US.

What is the most profitable hedge fund in history? ›

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 hedge fund has the highest returns ever? ›

Best Hedge Funds of All Time
  • Tudor Investment Corp. Founded: 1980. Net Gains Since Inception: $27 Billion. ...
  • Third Point. Founded: 1995. ...
  • Icahn Capital LP. Founded: 1987. ...
  • Brevan Howard. Founded: 2002. ...
  • Sculptor Capital. Founded: 1994. ...
  • Tiger Management. Founded: 1980. ...
  • Lone Pine Capital. Founded: 1997. ...
  • Appaloosa Management LP. Founded: 1993.
Sep 16, 2023

Who is the largest hedge fund founder? ›

Raymond Thomas Dalio (born August 8, 1949) is an American 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. New York City, U.S.

What is the biggest hedge fund loss in history? ›

1. Madoff Investment Scandal. Madoff admitted to his sons who worked at the firm that the asset management business was fraudulent and a big lie in 2008. 2 It is estimated the fraud was around $65 billion.

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Barbera Armstrong

Last Updated:

Views: 6128

Rating: 4.9 / 5 (59 voted)

Reviews: 90% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Barbera Armstrong

Birthday: 1992-09-12

Address: Suite 993 99852 Daugherty Causeway, Ritchiehaven, VT 49630

Phone: +5026838435397

Job: National Engineer

Hobby: Listening to music, Board games, Photography, Ice skating, LARPing, Kite flying, Rugby

Introduction: My name is Barbera Armstrong, I am a lovely, delightful, cooperative, funny, enchanting, vivacious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.