What a difference a global market meltdown makes.
At the beginning of this year, the firms that constitute Alpha’s 2009 Hedge Fund 100, our eighth annual ranking of the world’s biggest single-manager hedge fund firms, oversaw a combined $1.03 trillion in assets. Although by most measures that is a kingly sum, it is nonetheless down substantially from the record $1.35 trillion the world’s 100 largest firms managed at the end of 2007.
[To view the complete rankings of the World’s biggest hedge funds, click on 2009 Hedge Fund 100]
The falloff is hardly surprising, given that in 2008 hedge funds experienced their worst year ever. Industrywide assets tumbled by $525 billion from their mid-2008 peak, to finish the year at $1.4 trillion, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research. The massive decline reflects both investment losses and...
