Friday, October 8, 2010

D.E. Shaw Firing, but other Top Hedge Funds are Hiring

Last week, hedge fund job seekers received unwelcome news when industry giant New York-based hedge fund manager D.E. Shaw & Co. announced that it was cutting 10 percent of its workforce, representing approximately 150 hedge fund industry jobs. Despite the layoffs at David Shaw’s quant shop, many other prominent hedge funds continue to hire.

As evidenced by HedgeTracker’s Hedge Fund Job Center, a large number of firms are looking to add talented portfolio managers, research analysts, fund raisers and operations professionals to bolster their teams. Some of the major hedge fund firms that appear on the hedge fund job board include: Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, David Harding’s quantitative focused Winton Capital Management, multi-strategy behemoth Fortress Investment Group, Clint Carlson’s Dallas-based Carlson Capital, HBK Investments, and OakTree Capital Management.

The hedge fund job board also includes positions from more traditional investment managers, like Martin J. Whitman’s value-focused Third Avenue Management, Bill Gross’ fixed income focused PIMCO, Mario J. Gabelli’s GARP focused GAMCO Asset Management, and pension giant TIAA-CREF Investment Management.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates retains position as top US Hedge Fund

Ray Dalio’s Westport-based Bridgewater Associates continues to reign as the United States’ largest hedge fund. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bridgewater, which manages $50.9 billion as of July 1, outranks J.P. Morgan Asset Management - which takes second place with $41.1 billion in assets under management (AUM) - by nearly $10 billion. The bulk of JPM’s hedge fund assets are managed by Highbridge Capital Management, its multi-strategy hedge fund management subsidiary.

John Paulson’s Paulson & Co follows in third place with $31 billion in AUM. Bridgewater’s success this year is largely due to the strong performance of its Pure Alpha Fund II.