Bridgewater Tops the 10th Annual Hedge Fund 100 Ranking
With $58.9 billion in hedge fund assets, Bridgewater is the biggest hedge fund firm in the world, leading our tenth annual Hedge Fund 100 ranking.Bridgewater’s ascent parallels the rise of institutional investor interest in hedge funds during the past decade. Pension funds, foundations, endowments and sovereign wealth funds — driven by a quest for returns and the desire to diversify out of traditional stocks and bonds — have come to invest more and more of their assets in hedge funds. Many have also started to eschew funds of hedge funds, the traditional starting point for institutional investors looking to get into this alternative asset class, preferring to invest directly in a portfolio of hedge fund firms that they construct themselves.
The importance of brand-name recognition is evident in the Hedge Fund 100, where the five largest firms — Bridgewater, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Man Investments, Paulson & Co. and Brevan Howard Asset Management — managed a staggering $221.6 billion in combined assets when this year began. That’s nearly as much as the $260 billion in total assets that all the firms in the Hedge Fund 100 managed a decade ago in our inaugural ranking. All told this year’s 100 biggest firms managed a total of $1.21 trillion at the start of this year, up 12 percent from the $1.08 trillion in assets that the firms on the 2010 Hedge Fund 100 had.
How We Compiled the Ranking In Institutional Investor’s 2011 Hedge Fund 100, we provide each manager’s total assets under management as of January 3, 2011, unless otherwise indicated. Where possible, we also show assets at the individual fund level, with 2010 net returns through year-end and 2010 fund capital as reported last year. The ranking last year was based on capital as of January 4, 2010, unless otherwise noted, and returns were for the 12 months ended December 31, 2009.
Asset totals reflect internally run, single-manager hedge funds and separate accounts, including long-only funds that charge hedge-fund-style fees; they exclude funds of hedge funds, overlay accounts, funds managed by third parties, mutual funds and traditional long-only money, dynamic money market funds, assets in collateralized debt and bond obligations, private equity and venture capital. We gathered data through questionnaires completed by hedge fund managers, supplemented by extensive II staff research. Senior Editor Jane B. Kenney compiled the ranking with the assistance of Senior Contributing Writer Stephen Taub. To request a questionnaire for next year’s Hedge Fund 100 ranking, please e-mail your contact details to HF100@iimagazine.com