George Soros overtakes Dalio as world’s most successful money manager
George Soros, the man who broke the Bank of England, has just taken another scalp: Hedge fund manager and philosopher Ray Dalio.
Soros, whose 1992 trade against the sterling during Black Wednesday earned him the famous moniker, has overtaken Dalio as the world’s greatest hedge fund manager, according to figures released today by LCH Investments NV (a firm overseen by Edmond de Rothschild).
Soros’ Quantum Endowment Fund, which was founded in 1973, has made more money over the lifetime of the fund than any other hedgie on earth.
Figures compiled for the year ending December 2013 show Quantum has made $39.6bn (£24.1bn) since it was founded – $400m more than Dalio has made with his Bridgewater Pure Alpha fund since its founding in 1975.
As you can see, Soros had a much better 2013 than Dalio, and of course he has a two year head start on the the Bridgewater fund (although this might not be a positive given two more years’ scope to lose money)
Last year, the Quantum fund made $5.5bn, more than the $2.4bn made by Dalio’s fund. The $5.5bn figure is so impressive it beats all other nine manager returns listed in LCH’s top 10.
And not all this success can be laid at Soros’ door. He officially retired from running the fund in 2011, leaving his trusty lieutenants in charge.
But something of the Soros magic must have rubbed off on his staff.
As LCH chairman Rick Sopher says: "Several firms such as Quantum Endowment have continued to perform well and made substantial gains for their investors even after the official retirement of their founder."
"The reasons include a culture of money-making that deeply permeates the firm, extraordinarily talented managers that stay on after the founder retires and in most cases, a continuing oversight or influence of the founder, even after they retire."