Biggest US Hedge Funds

Survey published of biggest U.S. hedge funds 02 Sep 2005
Hedge funds with more than $1 billion make up majority of the industry. Absolute Return magazine, a publication dedicated to the hedge fund industry, has published its annual survey of hedge funds with $1 billion or more in assets under management and has found that there are 196 hedge funds in that category which account for $743 billion, the vast majority of the industry, CNN reports. Top of the list was Connecticut-based Bridgewater Associates with $17.7 billion, New York-based D.E. Shaw followed close behind with $17.1 billion. Goldman Sachs are third biggest with $15.3 billion in assets, a clear demonstration of how seriously Wall Street's major investment banks are about hedge funds. Barclays Global Investors came in sixth with $12.2 billion. Last year the industry absorbed $123 billion in new capital, up from $72 billion the previous year according to Tremont Capital Management. Absolute Return found that overall assets grew 9.3 percent since its last survey earlier this year. Daniel Loeb has seen assets at his firm Third Point Management, grow 52 percent from $2.1 billion at the start of the year to $3 billion. Other funds in the top 10 include Farallon Capital Management, with $13.8 billion; Citadel Investments Group, $12 billion; Och Ziff Capital, $12 billion and Maverick Capital, $11.5 billion. Some firm shave experienced losses as a result of the difficult environment such as Angelo, Gordon & Co. who has seen assets drop 30 percent to $8 billion. First coined by Alfred Winslow Jones in 1949, the term "hedge fund" originally referred to a portfolio of stocks with both long positions and short positions. The short positions were included to act as a hedge against losses in the long positions.