Bridgewater Associates, with assets of $87.1 billion, heads the list of biggest hedge funds compiled by
Institutional Investor's Alpha magazine.
Bridgewater, led by industry star Ray Dalio, also took first in Alpha's rankings for the past three years.
This year, Bridgewater was followed by:
Editor's Note: 38 Investments That Profit 96% of the Time (Free Video)
- JPMorgan Asset Management, with $59 billion in assets under management,
- Brevan Howard Asset Management, $40 billion,
- Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, $36.1 billion,
- BlueCrest Capital Management, $32.6 billion,
- BlackRock, $31.3 billion,
- AQR Capital Management, $29.9 billion,
- Lone Pine Capital, $29 billion,
- Man Group, $28.3 billion,
- Viking Global Investors, $27.1 billion.
Interestingly enough, studies show that smaller, younger hedge funds outperform bigger, older ones, Alpha reports.
"Overall, large size is generally bad," Michael Hennessy, director of investments at Morgan Creek Capital Management, a fund of hedge funds firm, tells the magazine.
"The industry started out as boutique-ish, and the subsequent significant increase in size and institutionalization, as we have seen over and over, is seldom a good thing. At the fund level it generally impedes nimbleness, flexibility, liquidity and results, depending upon the strategy."
Meanwhile, hedge fund returns aren't matching the industry's vaunted reputation, trailing the S&P 500 for the last five years.
Hedge fund returns slipped 0.17 percent in April, after a 0.33 percent decline in March, according to HFR research firm.
Brad Balter, a Boston-based adviser who assists investors in selecting hedge funds, says his clients aren't so eager to keep pouring money into them. Fund performance in recent years has been mostly "mediocre," he tells
The Wall Street Journal.
Editor's Note: 38 Investments That Profit 96% of the Time (Free Video)
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