Posted on 07/20/2004 4:38:55 PM PDT by wagglebee
George Soros of New York-based Soros Fund Management earned an estimated $750 million in 2003, making him No. 1 in the latest ranking by Institutional Investor's Alpha of the world's most highly paid hedge fund managers.
Junk-bond specialist David Tepper of Chatham, New Jersey-based Appaloosa Management takes second place, earning an estimated $510 million in 2003, followed by James Simons of Renaissance Technologies Corp. in East Setauket, New York, who pulled down $500 million.
Soros regains the top spot in Alpha's third annual ranking of top hedge fund earners after falling off the list last year, when Bruce Kovner of New York-based Caxton Associates led the pack. This year Kovner ties for fifth place with Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors in Stamford, Connecticut.
Both earned $350 million in 2003, according to Alpha estimates. They trailed fourth-ranked Edward Lampert of ESL Investments in Greenwich, Connecticut, who earned $420 million last year by Alpha's reckoning.
The wealth being created by hedge fund managers is simply staggering. Never have so few made so much so fast. The lowest earner on Alpha's 2003 ranking took home $65 million in 2003. Seventeen managers pulled down nine figures -- $100 million or more -- compared with just seven in 2002. The average take-home pay for the top 25 in 2003 was $207 million, nearly double 2002's $110 million.
The top ten earners in the hedge fund industry in 2003 were:
1. $750 million George Soros, SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT 2. $510 million David Tepper, APPALOOSA MANAGEMENT 3. $500 million James Simons, RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES CORP. 4. $420 million Edward Lampert, ESL INVESTMENTS 5. $350 million Steven Cohen, SAC CAPITAL ADVISORS 5. $350 million Bruce Kovner, CAXTON ASSOCIATES 7. $300 million Paul Tudor Jones II, TUDOR INVESTMENT CORP. 8. $230 million Kenneth Griffin, CITADEL INVESTMENT GROUP 9. $150 million Daniel Och, OCH-ZIFF CAPITAL MANAGEMENT GROUP 10. $145 million Leon Cooperman, OMEGA ADVISORS
Hedge fund managers overwhelmingly run private operations and guard their secrecy. Alpha's formula for determining which hedge fund managers earned the most was based on two key factors: their share of the fees generated by the funds they managed, and their gains on their own capital in the funds.
These numbers were arrived at based on knowledge or estimates of the firms' capital at the beginning of the year, their performances, their fee structures and managers' ownership stakes. Publicly available sources were used, as well as the Institutional Investor's Alpha Hedge Fund 100 ranking of the biggest hedge funds (April/May 2004), which lists capital positions and fund performances. In making these judgments, II tried to choose conservative estimates.
Must be that worst economy since the great depression thing.
Yep, he collected a lot of spare change standing in the soup lines.
Yes, I do. It's a recent investment. :-(
Nothing wrong with making money. Basically is IMPOSSIBLE to make money on anything tech-related that is not backed by leftist funding.
Does this mean that Soros is no longer part of the good americans in Edwards 'two americas?' Shouldn't he be a Bush supporter is he is this rich? I thought Bush was the President of the rich people? Damn, this is getting confusing.
One reason soros may be trying to defeat President Bush is because Bush's SEC department wants to regulate hedge funds. This would put a crimp in soros's shady and secretive style.
Nothing wrong with making money, true. But I can do so without aiding and abetting the liberal cause.
Its a little bit more complicated then that. Soros makes alot of money off of currency speculation and arbitrage (he's probably one of the best at it in the world, if not the best).
However, as if a bank making a bad loan, you want to recoup your losses, soros prefers activist treasury secretary's. A country that makes errors is prone to be run on by Soro's, but he needs to be able to invest and get his cash back if the country's financal structure falls apart.
If you remember some of the bailouts back in the 1990's that Clinton (really Rubin) engineered, the main benefactor was George Soros himself and also some major US banks.
Bush's administration is a bit to free market oriented then that and seems to follow more or less a market correction philosophy, i.e. no bailout, you screw up, this will teach you a lesson.
Soros is also fiercely anti-american and was opposed to the afghan war on the grounds that "thousands of people die every day, why is this so different".
Never the less, based on his financial strategy, and his methodologuy, its essential to have somone out there who can pay off the bills when nations get spend happy, hence why Soros support an international tax to support World Bank and IMF operations.
See post 12
With that said, your points certainly provide us with valuable background information for Soros's behavior. By showing how Soros is dependent upon an activist government, it becomes clear that Soros has taken one of Bush's war doctrines to heart: If you're not with me, you're against me. Since Bush does not necessarily care to help Soros---not out of any personal antipathy against Soros, but because of his adherence to laissez-faire economics---Soros interprets this to mean that Bush is against him.
Take a deep breath and look at my post one more time. There's no cheering in there. :-)
Check out Sonny M's enlightening post #12 on this thread. He gives potential reasons for Soros's attacks against President Bush.
I'm curious if he's able to get the 15% max capital gains tax rate on these short term speculations, and if his $750 million income is considered capital gains or taxed as ordinary income. These limousine liberals want to raise taxes on working high income people such as doctors, yet want to keep their very low 15% tax bracket for themselves.
Apologies
Thanks for calling me back, I would have likely missed the added info in 12.
side note, he is also the man responsible for several financial crisis's over the year, from the bank of england to south east asia.
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