Last year, Edward Lampert of ESL Investments stood alone at the top of Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine hedge fund rich list, having earned $1 billion in 12 months. This year, Lampert took a tumble, while two others crack the billion mark: James Simons of Renaissance Technologies Corp. with estimated earnings of $1.5 billion, and T. Boone Pickens of BP Capital Management with $1.4 billion. Rounding out the top five are George Soros of Soros Fund Management ($840 million), Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors ($550 million), and Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corp. ($500 million). Lampert lost ground, and landed in sixth place with only $425 million. The results also indicate that the rich need to be richer to qualify for the list. A manager had to earn at least $130 million in 2005 to hit the top 25, up from $100 million a year earlier, and the average for the entire list (this year there are 26 because of a tie) zoomed 45% from $251 million to $363 million.
