25 Hedge Fund Managers Made $32 Billion in Pandemic

The year the pandemic threw tens of millions of Americans out of work was extraordinarily good for the bank accounts of the wealthiest hedge fund managers.

The top 25 hedge fund bosses made $32 billion, according to Institutional Investor’s annual Rich List. The list was published Monday.

The top earner was Izzy Englander of Millennium Management, who took home an estimated $3.8 billion in 2020. His flagship fund achieved a 26 percent return. The prior year he was number six on the list with $750 million and the year before that he was in fifth place at $975 million.

There were far more billion-dollar hedge fund paydays than in years past. This year all of the top ten made over $1 billion, The 10th place spot taken by Bill Ackman, whose Pershing Square Management earned a 70 percent return and who was paid an estimated $1.4 billion.

The year before only Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates and James Simons of Renaissance Technologies earned over a billion dollars.

Hedge funds overall returned 11.6 percent last year, their best performance in a decade. But they were outperformed by the S&P 500, which rose 16 percent last year.

The rest of the top ten:

• James Simons: $2.6 billion on a 76 percent return.
• Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management: $2.5 billion on a 48 percent return.
• Ken Griffin of Citadel: $1.8 billion on a 24 percent return.
• Steve Cohen of Point72 Asset Management: $1.7 billion on a 16 percent return.
• David Tepper of Appaloosa Management: $1.7 billion on 13 percent return.
• Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management: $1.6 billion on a 65 percent return.
• O. Andres Halvorsen of Viking Global Investors: $1.5 billion on a 27 percent return.
• Scott Shleifer of Tiger Global Management: $1.5 billion on a 65 percent return
• Bill Ackman of Pershing Square CXapital Management: $1.4 billion on a 70 percent return.

Notice that two of the top ten underperformed the broader market.