Hedge Fund Bios
Hedge Fund Manager Bios
Just found this great resource covering various hedge fund managers:RANK: 1
T. Boone Pickens
CITY: Dallas
FIRM: BP Capital
AGE: 77
"Long crude" doesn't even begin to describe T. Boone Pickens's position. With $5 billion and growing in assets under management, his fund company, BP Capital, is throwing off a small national economy via an unshakable bet that the world's oil supply can't keep up with rising demand.
"Yes, my own money is in there," Pickens told us in January, describing his operation. "That always impresses the other investors."
And what's not to be impressed with? Returns on Pickens's main commodities pool were over 700 percent in 2005. His smaller equity fund was up more than 100 percent. While Pickens may not be heavily involved in trading on a day-to-day basis (the funds overall actually trade very little), his market view -- and oft-televised table thumping -- is what has driven BP's long-term strategy since oil was $20 a barrel.
When he's not out hyping the possibility of triple-digit crude prices or helping sink Democratic presidential hopefuls, Pickens donates money to pet rescue. Recently, he caught some flak when, as part of a tax loophole, he gave $165 million to Oklahoma State and the money ended up in his hedge fund. It's not a bad place to park a pile of dough, of course: Triple-digit returns off a 10-digit asset base that includes an oversized dose of his own money translates into what believes is the largest one-year sum ever earned (in contrast to a Bill Gates–style appreciation in net worth), larger even than Michael Milken's legendary $550 million haul of 1986, adjusted for inflation.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $1.5 BILLION+
RANK: 2
Stevie Cohen
CITY: Stamford, Connecticut
FIRM: SAC Capital Advisors
AGE: 49
The man is called "Stevie," as if he were everybody's favorite soul singer or the neighborhood paperboy, yet he could very well be the richest trader who ever laid down a position. Either way, Cohen is certainly among the most admired living financial figures, second only perhaps to Alan Greenspan (who might end up working for Cohen, at the rate Cohen gobbles up market studs). Says one former SAC staffer: "Stevie has the most clout on the Street, the best contacts, an army of analysts and unlimited capital." A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School who got started in the late 1970s as a proprietary trader at Gruntal & Co., Cohen launched SAC in 1992 with $20 million. He has since amassed more than $7 billion that he personally runs -- not to mention 500 or so traders, analysts and support staff, creating an asset-management empire that spans two management companies (SAC Capital Advisors and SAC Capital Management), three main funds (SAC Capital Associates, SAC Capital International and SAC Global Diversified), two separate offices in Stamford and additional outposts in Manhattan, London and San Francisco. When Cohen comes upon a trader with exceptional skills, he'll seed him in-house -- or help put him in business on his own.
The SAC family had another impressive year in 2005 -- performance, for the most part, was 20 percent–plus, as it has been, amazingly, just about every year since Cohen began. With his incentive fee of up to 50 percent of total profits (though his newest fund, the SAC Multi-Strategy, is said to be 3-and-35, and we hear the rest of his vehicles going forward will follow suit), perhaps only a federal mint prints more money year in, year out than Cohen. Had it not been for an anomalous rough patch this past October (his only down month), his epic compensation amount might have been even greater. We figure the SAC empire took in revenues of at least $3 billion last year -- and if Cohen, conservatively, took one-third...
ESTIMATED INCOME: $1 BILLION+
RANK: 3
James Simons
CITY: East Setauket, New York
FIRM: Renaissance Technologies Corp.
AGE: 67
Jim Simons is a Euclid for our times: He has a Ph.D. in math from Berkeley, has won the prestigious Veblen Prize in geometry, taught at MIT and founded Math for America. Well, here are some numbers: $6 billion, as in Simon's assets under management at year end. Or how about 5-and-44, his notoriously stiff fee arrangement? Then, of course, there's $100 billion, the lofty target Simons has set for a net-long vehicle his firm recently started. Finally, there's the 28 percent return produced by his Medallion fund, which employs scientific models to predict price movements in commodities, currencies and equities.
"Certain price patterns are non-random," the former code-breaker cryptically told The New York Times in a rare interview last November. He could be on to something: After all, Medallion has averaged more than 30 percent, net of fees, every year over the past decade and a half -- or three times as much as the S&P 500 index over the same period.
Simons's hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable donations support everything from autism research to augmenting inner-city math teachers' salaries to atom-smashing Big Bang replication experiments at the Brookhaven National Lab.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $900 MILLION – $1 BILLION
RANK: 4
Paul Tudor Jones
CITY: Greenwich, Connecticut
FIRM: Tudor Investment Corp.
AGE: 51
As the long, hot summer of 2005 wore on, the flagship fund that anchors Paul Tudor Jones's roughly $14 billion hedge-fund empire was hardly sizzling. Reports were surfacing that like a lot of funds, it had suffered losses in May and -- gasp! -- was actually down 2 percent at mid-year. But never bet against a master. Jones staged a comeback, all right: His flagship fund (with assets of $2 billion) finished the year up roughly 14 percent, an improvement over the 12 percent return registered a year earlier.
Much of this commodities superstar's personal earnings have been plowed back into his funds over the years; thus it's astounding to speculate what he might actually be taking home. We attempted to err on the conservative side, because Jones has a reputation for paying his people extremely well. But, based on what we believe is at least a sizable personal stake, Jones's 2005 take had to be among his most enormous yet -- which is why he was able to do such things as back Harvey and Bob Weinstein's new media group, swap thousands of acres of pristine Colorado land with the federal government and help bankroll construction of a new 15,000-seat arena for the University of Virginia, his alma mater. It'll be called John Paul Jones Arena -- named after Jones's father, by the way, not the Revolutionary War naval hero.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $800 – $900 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Stephen Feinberg
CITY: New York
FIRM: Cerberus Capital Management
AGE: 46
Known as the king of the vultures, Cerberus has some $16 billion in assets -- almost double its 2003 figure. Feinberg, who began at Drexel, personally runs around $4 billion, a portfolio that logged a 15 percent return after fees. He began in 1992 with just $10 million. Among some of his investors, according to media reports, have been Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and hedge-fund pioneer Michael Steinhardt. When the buyout world meets the hedge-fund world, a three-headed beast of giant deals, controversy and hefty returns usually emerges.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $500 - $600 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Bruce Kovner
CITY: New York
FIRM: Caxton Associates
AGE: 61
Bruce Kovner's roughly $7 billion flagship fund once again generated high-single-digit returns last year, which is starting to become a trend for the once unstoppable commodities/macro titan. Nevertheless, his Caxton Global Investments still generated some staggering absolute returns -- at least $500 million. Next, take into account his other funds, some of which had pretty good years (the $350 million Caxton Alpha Equity, which Kovner comanages, for example, completed its first full year up 15 percent). Finally, consider that a lot of Kovner's own money is in the fund, and even by neo-conservative estimates it's clear the man is breathing some rarefied air.
Chairman of the board at the Juilliard School of Music -- he recently gave it one of the world's greatest music-manuscript collections -- he reportedly installed a soundproof music room in his Upper East Side townhouse so he could pound on a Steinway grand piano at night and not bother the neighbors. A staunch Republican, chairman of the American Enterprise Institute and backer, with Michael Steinhardt, of the New York Sun newspaper, Kovner has come a long way from trading soybean futures in his own account.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $500 – $600 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Eddie Lampert
CITY: Greenwich, Connecticut
FIRM: ESL Investments
AGE: 43
Three years after a terrifying kidnapping and fresh off his Kmart coup, Lampert has the investment world at his command and some $15 billion under management. A value investor in the mold of Warren Buffett, he didn't have a 300 percent return on his Kmart position like last year; two of his two big long-term plays, Sears and AutoNation, were each up around 15 percent -- still not bad compared to the low-single-digit U.S. equity benchmarks. The man Richard Rainwater recently called "the greatest investor of his generation" is sitting on a mountain of assets, half of it locked up in Sears. Lampert's captors, by the way, are now locked up in prison.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $500 – $600 MILLION
RANK: 8
David Shaw
CITY: New York
FIRM: D.E. Shaw & Co.
AGE: 55
Now one of the biggest hedge funds on the planet, D.E. Shaw, with assets of around $20 billion, used its quantitative approach to churn out returns of roughly 20 percent in 2005. With 3-and-30 fees, this revenue stream boggles the mind. It doesn't all go to chairman Shaw, but enough does to put him in elite company. In the months ahead, we expect Shaw will be grappling with the tricky task of meeting regulatory obligations while keeping his computer-driven statistical arbitrage techniques from falling into the wrong hands.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $400 – $500 MILLION
RANK: 9
Jeffrey Gendell
CITY: Greenwich, Connecticut
FIRM: Tontine Partners
AGE: 46
It was yet another banner year for Gendell's enormous operation, which has been smoking the competition with a string of 100 percent–plus returns based on an activist strategy targeting industrials. When Tontine increased its stake in homebuilder Beazer Homes USA to 10 percent, Gendell demanded that management begin a share repurchase, which spurred a share-price hike of 25 percent within six weeks. On the philanthropic side, Gendell donated more than $2 million to Duke University, his alma mater, to fund two professorships in the new energy-and-environment graduate program there.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $300 – $400 MILLION
RANK: 10 (TIED)
Louis Bacon
CITY: New York
FIRM: Moore Capital Management
AGE: 49
A global macro maestro, Bacon orchestrated some solid performance for his $6 billion flagship Moore Global funds, which returned more than 15 percent last year. Meanwhile, several of his other funds (with some $4 billion run by several other portfolio managers) also fared well. The avid outdoorsman once again bagged quite a bounty.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $300 – $350 MILLION
RANK: 10 (TIED)
Stephen Mandel
CITY: Greenwich, Connecticut
FIRM: Lone Pine Capital
AGE: 50
It was a mondo-boffo year for Mandel, the Tiger Management alum, as his firm has now reached nearly $10 billion. His Lone Cedar fund, with $2 billion, was up over 20 percent. Mandel, who has expanded into long-only funds, is one of several hedgies who have indicated they don't plan to register with the SEC. We're guessing that could mean longer lockups. Clients likely won't mind.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $300 – $350 MILLION
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Larry Robbins
CITY: New York
FIRM: Glenview Capital Management
AGE: 36
A hulking figure nicknamed "L-Train," Robbins is, in the parlance of railroad engineers, one highballing heavy. This former Omega man, who grew up betting horses (his dad worked at Arlington Park racetrack in suburban Chicago), now wagers about $6 billion and fares quite well -- his fund had 15 percent–plus returns in 2005. Robbins is net long, GARP-ish and known for his concentrated bets. His focus is on old-economy stocks, but he's more of a new-economy guy. That's "new economy" as in the small-country-GDP-sized one he has created for himself. ESTIMATED INCOME: $200 – $250 MILLION
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Robert Soros
CITY: New York
FIRM: Soros Fund Management
AGE: 42
His pop is one of the best-known capitalists of all time and an enemy of the right wing, but Robert Soros is getting kind of famous, too. He's having a nice run stewarding the staggeringly large eponymous macro fund company, which includes the roughly $10 billion flagship Quantum Endowment Fund -- further proof, indeed, that the son also rises.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $200 – $250 MILLION
RANK: 14 (TIED)
Israel Englander
CITY: New York
FIRM: Millennium Partners
AGE: 57
Englander has been in the news for many wrong reasons of late, but the worst of his market-timing woes seem to be over. A good portion of Millennium's assets ($6 billion) are his. And while he settled his score with Eliot Spitzer, Englander's troops, a true multi-strategy force, racked up yet another impressive year under his rule.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $150–$200 MILLION
RANK: 14 (TIED)
Richard Perry
CITY: New York
FIRM: Perry Capital
AGE: 51
Even a mediocre year for this giant (his firm runs $11 billion) produces a sweet payday. The long-term activist notched just 5 percent on his flagship $8 billion Perry Partners International fund — too few deals combined with too much capital may have been to blame — after two straight years of 20 percent–plus returns. Hey, there’s always next year. ESTIMATED INCOME: $150–$200 MILLION
RANK: 14 (TIED)
Dave Smith
CITY: Santa Monica, California
FIRM: Coast Asset Management
AGE: 59
He has flown under the radar for many years, but Dave Smith got the attention he deserved recently when he sold one-third of his hedge-fund business to Summit Partners for $127 million. He grabbed 90 percent of that take, and his funds control $5 billion, so it's safe to say the former Oppenheimer bond-arbitrage trader had a year to remember. The odd hedge-fund manager to register long ago with the SEC, Smith prides himself on running a highly ethical shop, and despite his big payout, his friends say he still shows up for work every day ready to leap into battle with the credit markets. "He would rather tackle some complex spread analysis than play golf," says a close associate. "He loves to trade."
ESTIMATED INCOME: $150 – $200 MILLION
RANK: 14 (TIED)
David Tepper
CITY: Chatham, New Jersey
FIRM: Appaloosa Management
AGE: 46
The Pittsburgh-raised, Goldman-groomed high-yield bond trader has once again shown he's in it to win it, giving back money every chance he gets. In order to start 2005 at a lean, mean $2 billion, a good portion of which is his own dough, Tepper spent the latter months of 2004 (while everyone else within spitting distance of a Bloomberg was trying to raise money) giving back $700 million. The move paid off, as Tepper's flagship fund notched a 20 percent return last year. Tepper likes to find companies most everyone else has left for dead; he has a big stake in bankrupt auto-parts maker Delphi at the moment. Steel stocks helped him forge a solid fourth quarter.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $150 – $200 MILLION
RANK: 14 (TIED)
William Von Mueffling
CITY: New York
FIRM: Cantillon Capital Management
AGE: 38
What was Lazard Asset Management thinking when it allowed this star hedge-fund manager to walk at the start of 2003? Von Mueffling (who, in hindsight, should have been named Lazard CIO) would certainly show his ex-bosses, building an asset-management empire in just a few short years. Last year was another impressive showing. Von Mueffling personally manages at least $3 billion of the operateion's roughly $8 billion across a number of vehicles. He enjoyed mostly double-digit returns, with some of his funds returning 20-plus perecent.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $150 - $200 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
Tim Barakett
CITY: New York
FIRM: Atticus Capital
AGE: 40 Literally dozens of sources we questioned for this list mentioned Barakett, and for good reason: Several of the funds he manages posted stellar returns -- notably the Atticus European Fund, which he comanages with David Slager.
It was up over 60 percent in 2005.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100 – $150 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
William Browder
CITY: Moscow
FIRM: Hermitage Capital Management
AGE: 41
In 1996, the late financier Edmond Safra gave a former Salomon Brothers dealmaker named William Browder $25 million to invest in post-Communist Russia. Browder, whose grandfather Earl once fronted the U.S. Communist party, now runs the world's largest Russia-only fund; it returned 82 percent, net of fees, in 2005. The $1 billion–plus-in-assets fund is made up almost entirely of energy stocks, so as Gazprom and Lukoil grew, Browder's wallet followed suit.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100 – $150 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
Stanley Druckenmiller
CITY: New York
FIRM: Duquesne Capital
AGE: 52
Druckenmiller, George Soros's former right-hand man, surprised investors late last year by announcing that his flagship Duquesne Fund would be closing in early 2006. Although it finished in positive territory in 2005, it still came in well below its historical average. Rather than release investors from the lockup and allow for a potential rush for the door, Duquesne, which has been returning 100 percent of annual appreciation for years, will simply shut down. Druckenmiller, who has been widely quoted making dire predictions about the U.S. economy, recently received some press attention in Ireland when he filed suit to recover a 10 percent early-withdrawal penalty paid in 2002 to Dermot Desmond's International Investment and Underwriting after the firm fired star portfolio manager David Morrison on harassment grounds.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100 – $150 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
Noam Gottesman
CITY: London
FIRM: GLG Partners
AGE: 44
Traders at Gottesman's GLG Partners had a rough year in 2005, but they nonetheless managed to rack up impressive numbers. In addition to the FSA's seven-figure fine against star trader Philippe Jabre for insider trading, the firm is widely believed to have suffered significant drawdown during the second-quarter credit crunch.
When the dust of 2005 finally settled, however, several of the funds at the $11 billion–in-assets firm had finished with chunky double-digit returns, notably cofounder Pierre Lagrange's $1 billion long/short fund, which finished 2005 with returns of almost 30 percent. In a tough year for relative-value funds, Jabre's $4 billion portfolio came in with a very respectable single-digit return. Gottesman, who founded the firm with Lagrange after the two left Goldman Sachs, continues to trade despite the considerable demands of being chief executive.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100 – $150 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
Philippe Jabre
CITY: London
FIRM: GLG Partners
AGE: 45
(See Noam Gottesman, above)
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100–$150 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
Pierre Lagrange
CITY: London
FIRM: GLG Partners
AGE: 44
(See Noam Gottesman, above)
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100 – $150 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
Daniel Loeb
CITY: New York
FIRM: Third Point Management Co.
AGE: 44
The incorrigibly caustic Loeb had an almost 9-million-share position in International Coal Group before selling in November when its share price reached $13. In January, an explosion in the company's Sago mine in West Virginia took the lives of a dozen men, causing the share price to decline over concerns about legal liabilities and new safety costs. Though a cruel footnote to the Sago tragedy, Loeb's well-timed exit protected his flagship portfolio's gains, which came in with a 19 percent profit for the year.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100 – $150 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
Jonathan Lourie
CITY: London
FIRM: Cheyne Capital Management
AGE: 44
With more than $8 billion and growing, this shop, located in the St. James section of London, is a Big Ben–sized ATM for founder Lourie. Cheyne (pronounced like the vice president) has two dozen or so products generating at least $300 million in fee revenue, some of which Lourie shares with president Stuart Fiertz, as well as his sizable staff.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100 – $150 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
Raj Rajaratnam
CITY: New York
FIRM: The Galleon Group
AGE: 48
When the Sri Lankan–born Rajaratnam wasn't out raising money to help his homeland, which is still recovering from the devastating aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, the hedge-fund superstar generated solid returns. His firm has a slew of health-care and tech long/short funds that combine fundamental research and savvy trading to capture both long-term and short-term gains. Rajaratnam personally manages close to $2 billion, and those funds collectively returned 15.6 percent last year. Finally, add in a taste of the Galleon Group's overall action (the firm has $4.2 billion in assets), and Raj is rocking -- as are his main traders.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100 – $150 MILLION
RANK: 19 (TIED)
Jeffrey Vinik
CITY: Boston
FIRM: Vinik Asset Management AGE: 47
It's safe to say that this former Fidelity standout (best known for his stewardship of the Magellan Fund) is living the dream -- running a billion-dollar-plus fund with mostly his own money and registering returns that are nothing short of awesome (north of 20 percent last year). Which, essentially, means never having to say you're sorry.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $100 – $150 MILLION
RANK: 29 (TIED)
John Arnold
CITY: Houston
FIRM: Centaurus Energy
AGE: 32
Starting four years ago with $8 million of his own dough, John D. Arnold, former star Enron energy trader, has since amassed more than $1 billion in assets. Most of hte 16 other traders at his Centaurus Energy fund operation came from Enron. As ex-Big E biggies Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling finally face the music, Arnold and his boys are making beautiful noise.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $75 - $100 MILLION
RANK: 29 (TIED)
Peter Briger
CITY: New York
FIRM: Fortress Investment Group
AGE: 42
One of many former Goldman Sachs stars to find success after striking out on their own, Briger (pronounced bree-ger) is the brains and brawn behind Fortress's absolute return–bent Drawbridge funds, some of which returned double digits, after fees, last year. The $3 billion Drawbridge Special Opportunities fund was up a respectable 9 percent.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $75 – $100 MILLION
RANK: 29 (TIED)
Richard Chilton
CITY: Stamford, Connecticut
FIRM: Chilton Investment Co.
AGE: 47
A master of the classic long/short style, Chilton is a founding father of the Greenwich hedge-fund scene. Having logged respectable returns on more than $3 billion in assets, Chilton can once again take a spot among the game's elite.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $75 – $100 MILLION
RANK: 29 (TIED)
David Ganek
CITY: Greenwich, Connecticut
FIRM: Level Global Advisors AGE: 43
Ganek launched in the summer of 2003 with a measly quarter-bil; now the long/short equity expert and former SAC trader runs several billion. Just like his old colleague Stevie Cohen, Ganek is an avid art collector. Sources close to his firm say he collected 30 percent of at least $300 million in fee revenue last year.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $75 – $100 MILLION
RANK: 29 (TIED)
Mark Kingdon
CITY: New York
FIRM: Kingdon Capital Management
AGE: 57
The $3 Billion M. Kingdon Offshore fund returned 16 percent in 2005, a bit better than the previous year but well off his 36 percent 2003 figure. One of the industry's true hall of famers, Kingdon is known as a great person to work for, and he pays his people well.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $75 - $100 MILLION
RANK: 29 (TIED)
James Pallota
CITY: Boston
FIRM: Tudor Investment Corp.
AGE: 47
Though his Raptor Global portfolio was up a respectable high-single-digit return, net of fees, for 2005, that figure paled in comparison to its performance the previous two years. Among the portfolio's big winners: a bet on Circuit City, of which the fund owns close to 6 percent of shares outstanding (other big holders include Highfields and D.E. Shaw). A part-owner of the Boston Celtics, Pallota received considerable press attention recently as construction began on his new Weston, Massachusetts, home, which will reportedly include a 7,000-square-foot gymnasium. He has certainly earned the right to blow off a little steam.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $75 – $100 MILLION
RANK: 29 (TIED)
Barry Rosenstein
CITY: San Francisco
FIRM: Jana Partners
AGE: 47
With nearly $4 billion in hedge-fund assets, Jana Partners and Rosenstein, its public face, are an underperforming corporate board's worst nightmare. Among the companies assailed by his public bitch-slaps in 2005 were industrial titan Kerr-McGee, electronic-payment software maker Transaction Systems Architects and coal-mining concern Massey Energy. Meanwhile, during an April conference call in which new Siebel Systems CEO George Shaheen was introduced to investors, Rosenstein didn't mince words: "I just want to point out, George, as you're speaking, the stock has dropped 21 cents. The reaction [to this call] clearly is disappointment." Clients of Jana's were not disappointed by the fund's nearly 12 percent returns, net of fees.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $75 – $100 MILLION
RANK: 29 (TIED)
Peter Thiel
CITY: San Francisco
FIRM: Clarium Capital Management
AGE: 38
Talk about self-confidence -- global-macro-stalwart-come-lately Peter Thiel doesn't even bother charging a fixed management fee. Instead, his Clarium simply takes 25 percent of profits, a cut above the industry norm of 20 percent. We doubt any of his investors are complaining: Since its inception less than three years ago, Clarium is up almost 300 percent cumulatively.
In addition to being a rising trading star, Thiel is a true maverick. He cofounded PayPal, the online bill-paying service, then sold it to eBay four years ago for $1.5 billion. Now he's his own best pay pal; his fund, totaling $1.7 billion, was up 57 percent last year, net of fees.
Thiel made two big bets that paid off last year: long energy, long the dollar. A derivatives trader at Credit Suisse before his PayPal stint, the deep-thinking Thiel is a master of chess and active in the Libertarian party. He indulges his venture-capital side as a backer of tech startups. If only we had been a backer of his fund.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $75–$100 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Kaveh Alamouti
CITY: London
FIRM: Moore Capital Management
AGE: 52
Louis Bacon's secret weapon, Alamouti, previously the CEO of Optimum Asset Management, joined Moore Capital a few years ago to help lead its European operation. The skilled arbitrage trader has been on a roll ever since.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Dwight Anderson
CITY: New York
FIRM: Ospraie Management
AGE: 39
Anderson had a very busy year in 2005. He and his partners were up over 10 percent in their flagship fund; Lehman Brothers bought 20 percent of the firm for a reported $80 million; he launched a new fund, Ospraie Wingspan; and he even got married. As we said, a busy year -- so what else is new? An extensive interview with Anderson starts here.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Brett Barakett
CITY: New York
FIRM: Tremblant Capital
AGE: 39
With this $3 billion fund up more than 17 percent, Barakett no longer needs to play second fiddle to his big brother, Tim, who helped him get started. In his downtime, he unwinds by playing ice hockey.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50–$75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Chris Hohn
CITY: London
FIRM: The Children's Investment Fund
AGE: 39
Hohn hates publicity, but he got a ton of it last year when he succeeded in his campaign to derail the Deutsche Börse/London Stock Exchange merger. The camera-shy ex–Perry Capital portfolio manager led TCI to returns over 50 percent for 2005, on total assets rumored to have passed $6 billion by year's end. The hard part about estimating Hohn's take-home is that the fund is structured to feed a charitable entity, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, which is active in charities working with children in developing nations, particularly those struggling with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Jamie Cooper-Hohn, Chris's wife, runs the foundation. The couple reportedly met while attending graduate school at Harvard -- he at the business school and she at the Kennedy School of Government. If our estimate is too high, we'd suspect it is so due to the Hohns' giving nature and not to lack of performance.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Alan Howard
CITY: London
FIRM: Brevan Howard Asset Management
AGE: 42
During the turbulent late spring last year, hysteria gripped the press as several major hedge funds reported losses, and some even shut down. Howard's $8 billion complex was flat in that period. The rest of the year went well, as the fund rebounded to finish with an 8 percent return. Solid returns on a significant amount of capital make Howard one of the wealthiest men in the City.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
John Kleinheinz
CITY: Fort Worth, Texas
FIRM: Kleinheinz Capital Partners
AGE: 44
On the back of consistently strong performance, this lesser-known global macro maven has built his fund to more than $1.8 billion since launching a decade ago. Kleinheinz really is a rock star -- in the mold of the Who's Keith Moon.
Not only did he pound out a 26 percent return in 2005, but this past September, according to reports in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, he jumped in a photographer's rented SUV and drove it into a country-club pond after a trespassing dispute. Kleinheinz, who bailed out of the driver's seat before the vehicle went into the drink, was arrested and had to post bail; charges were later dismissed.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Warren Lichtenstein
CITY: New York
FIRM: Steel Partners
AGE: 39
Activist hedge-fund manager Lichtenstein had quite a year in the Far East -- his Japan Strategic Fund returned more than 30 percent. At year's end, the man of Steel had assets of around $1.5 billion. Lichtenstein made headlines earlier this year by joining Carl Icahn in a bid for South Korean tobacco company KT&G that amounted to the biggest hostile-takeover attempt on the Korean peninsula since the 1950 crossing of the thirty-eighth parallel.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Ed Mule
CITY: Greenwich, Connecticut
FIRM: Silver Point Capital
AGE: 43
Tough customers when it comes to distressed situations, Mule and his partner, Robert O'Shea, have a sterling reputation. Silver Point, which has roughly $5 billion in assets, garnered an 11 percent return last year. The fund was part of a syndicate ready to pounce on Refco, but like the disgraced commodities broker itself, the deal fell apart. Mule is the public face of the operation, while O'Shea sometimes works from an office near his Wyckoff, New Jersey, home. They've made quite a successful pair.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Michael Novogratz
CITY: New York
FIRM: Fortress Investment Group
AGE: 41
The global macro expert in Fortress's Drawbridge unit, Novogratz once served as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot. He and Peter Briger are flying high these days on another year of solid returns. Novogratz's $1.7 billion Drawbridge Global Macro Fund was up 21 percent in 2005. ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Robert O'Shea
CITY: Greenwich, Connecticut
FIRM: Silver Point Capital
AGE: 41
(See Ed Mule, above)
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Jim Pulaski
CITY: Miami
FIRM: Tudor Investment Corp.
AGE: 32
Supposedly a descendant of famed Polish military officer turned American Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski -- he of the famously ugly skyway that spans Newark Bay in New Jersey -- this Tudor energy trader is commander in chief when it comes to natural gas. Sources insist there's no way he mishandled last year's wicked natty volume.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Art Samberg
CITY: Westport, Connecticut
FIRM: Pequot Capital Management
AGE: 65
With $7 billion under management, much of it his own scratch, Art Samberg is a pioneer of the long/short equity genre and one of the foremost growth investors of his generation. He rode the backs of AOL and Yahoo for most of the '90s, then was one of the few aggressive momentum players to avoid the bursting bubble.
This year, the Pequot founder celebrates 20 years of helming hedge funds, and clients will tell you he's been doing just fine. Annual returns have averaged more than 15 percent in the five years since Samberg split with his former partner Dan Benton; the S&P 500, by contrast, was flat over the same period. Samberg's hiring of John Mack was short-lived, but he did manage to snag Byron Wein, Morgan Stanley's famous senior statesman of strategy, as well as pension-fund rainmaker Rob Burdick of MacKay Shields.
These new faces bolster Pequot's institutional presence. Most of its assets ($5 billion) are invested in long/short equity, with the remainder in credit, but the firm -- which has 15 funds in all, many of which were launched last year -- is looking to roll out even more. Some will be based around Samberg's high-quality fundamental research; others will be more quantitatively driven. ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 38 (TIED)
Thomas Steyer
CITY: San Francisco
FIRM: Farallon Capital Management
AGE: 48
Look what Steyer is up against: In late 2004, a group of "socially conscious" undergraduate and graduate students at 15 colleges across the country, including Yale and Stanford, staged protests that they called the "Unfarallon Day of Action," aimed at inducing their universities to remove endowment investments in funds managed by Farallon Capital Management because Farallon invests in companies with business practices the students deemed unethical.
Rather than buckling to such demands, the investment committee at Yale (which at the time had $2 billion invested with Farallon) decided to stay put -- and the university reaped the rewards in 2005. Steyer had another terrific year, posting 15 percent returns.
A Goldman Sachs alum, Steyer is also a managing director of private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, which famously purchased 15 percent of Nasdaq in 2001 and made headlines last April with its acquisition of DoubleClick for $1.1 billion. We mention that in passing, as Steyer's trading accomplishments more than pad his bankroll.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $50 – $75 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
Richard Chenevix-Trench
CITY: London
FIRM: Sloane Robinson Investment Management
AGE: 47
(See Hugh Sloane, below)
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
Chase Coleman
CITY: New York
FIRM: Tiger Technology Management
AGE: 30
Considered one of the top young hedge-fund traders today, Charles "Chase" Payson Coleman III is a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New York -- and the man who constructed the wall that gave Wall Street its name. Now that's a pedigree.
Coleman had a stellar year in 2005, with returns of more than 40 percent across his $2 billion–plus portfolio, including some significant bets on several small-cap stocks in China and Europe. Coleman also got married last year. His clients love him, too.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
Todd Deutsch
CITY: New York
FIRM: The Galleon Group
AGE: 33
(See Raj Rajaratnam, above)
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
Philip Falcone
CITY: New York
FIRM: Harbinger Capital Partners
AGE: 43
A Harvard hockey star turned junk-bond trader, Falcone changed the name of his five-year-old fund company at the start of the year from Harbert Management Corp. to Harbinger Capital, for no apparent reason, as far as we can tell. By any name, with $3 billion under management and another year of nice returns (13.5 percent),
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
Ivor Farman
CITY: London
FIRM: Gradient Capital Partners
AGE: 42
Former Goldman Sachs Asset Management stock picker Farman really jacked one in 2005. Even after a pullback of more than 10 percent in the fall, he still came in with returns of 56 percent in the Gradient Europe fund.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
Wayne Holman
CITY: Stamford, Connecticut
FIRM: SAC Capital Advisors
AGE: Mid-30s
Possibly the biggest SAC earner after Stevie Cohen, Holman, a health-care star within affiliate Sigma, has made a name for himself as a consistent earner. He's a true gunslinger who is unafraid to make big, concentrated bets -- at least two or three of which played out for him last year.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
John Horseman
CITY: London
FIRM: Horseman Capital Management
AGE: 47
Horseman, a former GAM mutual-fund manager, blew away the competition in the global long/short equity arena last year, with returns exceeding 35 percent. He and his partners founded the firm in 2000 and have produced positive performance numbers ever since. Last July, Horseman Capital introduced its European Select fund, which will focus primarily on European mid-cap opportunities.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
George Robinson
CITY: London
FIRM: Sloane Robinson Investment Management
AGE: 49
(See Hugh Sloane, below)
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
Gary Rosenbach
CITY: New York
FIRM: The Galleon Group
AGE: 49
(See Raj Rajaratnam, above)
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 51 (TIED)
Hugh Sloane
CITY: London
FIRM: Sloane Robinson Investment Management
AGE: 50
It was a good year across the board at Sloane Robinson in 2005, primarily a result of the dramatic run-up in Japanese equities, as well as opportunities in emerging markets. One fund comanaged by Hugh Sloane and George Robinson came in with returns over 40 percent, while Richard Chenevix-Trench (above) hit over 25 percent in both his Asia and emerging-markets portfolios. With the other funds in the stable all reportedly doing well, there were plenty of spoils for these victors to divide.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
The Top Wall Street Traders
RANK: 1
Mark McGoldrick
CITY: New York
FIRM: Goldman Sachs
AGE: 48
How do you reward one of the top prop traders at the Street's top trading firm following one of the single most lucrative years in the history of the securities industry? You pay, handsomely. Media reports that Goldman MD McGoldrick, co-head of global proprietary investments, was in line to possibly make $40 million surfaced as early as late November, and since then we've heard the splendid spoils were that and more. After all, McGoldrick's unit made more than $2 billion in profits for the firm during fiscal year 2005. We now understand that officials at Goldman, a publicly owned company, so fear and loathe this list (sorry, Hank) that they've instructed all their PR people not to talk to us about anything, period. We're going to miss all those halfhearted tirades about how our numbers are way off. This one isn't.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40 – $50 MILLION
RANK: 2 (TIED)
Raanan Agus
CITY: New York
FIRM: Goldman Sachs
AGE: 38
Agus, a huge and widely respected prop trader, helped Goldman earn a bundle last year. "You have to have him on the list," says one rival bulge-bracket trader. This past November, Agus, a chess enthusiast, hosted a chess game pitting Susan Polgar (the first female to win the men's grandmaster chess title) against 26 opponents -- many of them traders -- simultaneously. Sure, Agus has a bad-ass balance sheet with which to run the board, but regardless, he's truly one of Wall Street's grandmasters.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $30 – $40 MILLION
RANK: 2 (TIED)
Ken Karl
CITY: New York
FIRM: UBS
AGE: 47
Karl spent a good bit of his time in 2005 setting up a hedge-fund division for UBS that will fall under the classification "sell side yet buy side" -- still part of the bank, but under the banner of Dillon Read Capital Management. A senior statesman, Karl became embroiled in a legal spat last summer when a top bond salesman claimed he'd been fired days before his anticipated $2–$3 million bonus was due. The case was ultimately settled. As for Karl, his new operation will dispense hundreds of millions to secure top talent; UBS wants him to stay put.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $30 – $40 MILLION
RANK: 2 (TIED)
Boaz Weinstein
CITY: New York
FIRM: Deutsche Bank
AGE:32
Crowned global head of credit trading for North America and Europe late last year and believed to be the highest-paid trader at Deutsche, boyish Boaz is certainly on a roll. When early estimates of his outrageous bonus haul were first mentioned by CNBC earlier this year, the entire trading floor reportedly gave Weinstein a standing ovation -- even as a lot of other people around the Street scoffed that there was no way he made that much. Among those naysayers were senior sources at the bank, who swore to us that Weinstein didn't reach such lofty pay levels. But if he was awarded anywhere close to the comp of some other top Deutsche traders we know, it's still our contention that the standing O was warranted.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $30 - $40 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Simon Greenshields
CITY: Purchase, New York
FIRM: Morgan Stanley
AGE: 49
Morgan Stanley's head of gas and power, Greenshields is part of the bank's elite energy crew. His specialties are natural gas and electricity -- and once again Greenshields has lit it up.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Jonathan Hoffman
CITY: Miami
FIRM: Lehman Brothers
AGE: 33
Hoffman trades from Miami. Why? Well, because he can -- he's that good. In the prop fixed-income/rates world, he's a stud. Lehman people were, in general, a bit underwhelmed by their year-end bonuses, particularly in the wake of what was one of the bank's best years ever. But superstar Hoffman would not be among those grumbling.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Michael Hutchins
CITY: New York
FIRM: UBS
AGE: 50
Hutchins has trading in his veins. He spent a decade at Salomon Brothers before joining UBS, where until recently he was global head of fixed-income, rates and currencies. A high-ranking executive who still actively trades, Hutchins is part of the John Costas–led migration into UBS's newly organized internal hedge-fund operation. "[Hutchins] is one of the best-paid people on the Street," a reliable source tells us.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Rajeev Misra
CITY: London
FIRM: Deutsche Bank
AGE: 44
Misra is a credit-trading machine who is helping put Deutsche's derivatives business into overdrive. One of three Deutsche dynamos on this list, Misra has led this unit to stellar results. In the past, we've been told that we underestimated his annual haul -- well, certainly not this year.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Arvind Raghunathan
CITY: New York
FIRM: Deutsche Bank
AGE: 42
Desribed by more than one fellow trader as "great," Indian-born Raghunathan has used a hands-on style to become one of the top Wall Street prop talents. He has a firm grip on the bank's mammoth fixed-income and equity positions, with a large capital base behind him. Despite some personnel losses that gutted DB Advisors (the bank's now-defunct internal hedge fund), Raghunathan's team still had one of its best years ever, churning out nearly $1 billion in profits for the venerable bank.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Olav Refvik
CITY: Purchase, New York
FIRM: Morgan Stanley
AGE: 47
Yet another Morgan energy star, the Norwegian-born Refvik is a key part of one of the most profitable energy-trading operations in the world. He has helped the bank dominate the heating-oil market by locking up New Jersey storage-tank farms adjacent to New York Harbor, where he's been known to tool around in his yacht, Song of Norway. Hell, Refvik could probably buy Norway.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
John Shapiro
CITY: Purchase, New York
FIRM: Morgan Stanley
AGE: 54
Shapiro been a vital part of Morgan's energy effort, working closely with global commodities head Neal Shear to oversee the 200-plus-person profit center. If our estimates are correct, Shapiro might even pull in a bit more than his boss does.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Ashok Varadhan
CITY: New York
FIRM: Goldman Sachs
AGE: 33
The head of North American interest-rate products, Varadhan is a Wall Street superstar. While Goldman Sachs media spokespeople mightily scorned our efforts to get his compensation information confirmed ("We feel these figures are based on guesswork and in most cases wildly exaggerated," one told us), we're guessing that a list without Varadhan would be wildly incomplete.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Barry Witlin
CITY: New York
FIRM: Merrill Lynch
AGE: 48
Once the head of Merrill's global rates group, Wittlin is considered the firm's biggest proprietary trader. A former Bank of America interest-rate derivatives trader, Wittlin had previously been saddled with a considerable amount of management responsibilities, but last year he was set free to concentrate on doing what he does best: making money.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 5 (TIED)
Jon Wood
CITY: London
FIRM: UBS
AGE: 43
A prop-trading titan whose cold, secretive ways have earned him the nickname "Keyser Söze," Wood is a mathematical marvel. The European star first forged his reputation as an options-theory master at the former Swiss Bank Corporation, which became SBC Warburg before being swallowed up by UBS.
Wood, who once ran a book from the Bahamas, was berated this past December by a judge presiding over a highly publicized legal claim against the failed British Gadget Shop store. In throwing out the suit -- which was filed by Wood and tycoon Peter Wilkinson against entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter -- the U.K. judge called Wood a "very hard and calculating man" while adding that he found him "an unreliable witness." Clearly, Wood took a gamble in bringing the suit, which only ended up costing him, but his trading performance in 2005 should help ease the sting of the courtroom outcome.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 15 (TIED)
John Bertuzzi
CITY: New York
FIRM: Goldman Sachs
AGE: 51
Bertuzzi made a lot of money for Goldman in 2005, but what else is new? A star trader on one of the most powerful energy desks on earth, he had previously been stationed in the U.K. -- and seems to have survived the transition quite well.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $15 – $20 MILLION
RANK: 15 (TIED)
George "Beau" Taylor
CITY: New York
FIRM: J.P. Morgan
AGE: 35
In one of last year's biggest defections, Taylor, a five-year veteran of Morgan Stanley's highly regarded energy-trading operation, switched over to J.P. Morgan, where he now helps oversee the firm's 80-person energy-trading unit.
A few more former Morgan Stanley employees ended up joining him as well. As long as J.P. Morgan continues to chase the commodity-trading revenues that are enjoyed by its rivals, expect Taylor to be a power earner.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $15 – $20 MILLION
RANK: 17 (TIED)
Driss Ben-Brahim
CITY: London
FIRM: Goldman Sachs
AGE: 41
Having taken the helm of Goldman's venerated macro prop-trading operation, the Moroccan-born Ben-Brahim didn't set the world on fire in 2005 -- in fact, we heard that even the kid who took over Ben-Brahim's old exotic derivatives book had a better year. Aided by one of the world's biggest balance sheets and a penchant for large bets, Ben-Brahim nevertheless held his own; after all, even a mediocre year for a powerful Goldman prop trader is good enough to make the cut.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10–$15 MILLION
RANK: 17 (TIED)
Vincent Kaminski
CITY: Houston
FIRM: Citigroup
AGE: 57
A native of Poland -- and formerly of Salomon Brothers -- Kaminski is a revered energy trader considered among the foremost authorities on measuring and analyzing market risk. The rare Enron executive to sound a warning (albeit one that fell upon deaf ears) over the murky off-the-books activities that eventually brought down the company, Kaminski had no trouble finding employment after the Big E's implosion, working for a spell at Citadel Investment Group. He joined Citi last year in Houston as managing director of global commodities. There, he uses quant models to mastermind the bank's energy-trading operation, which also includes teams in New York, London and Singapore.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
RANK: 17 (TIED)
Eric Rosen
CITY: New York
FIRM: J.P. Morgan
AGE: 36
J.P. Morgan's head of credit trading (dealer business) leads a group that makes markets in investment-grade loans and bonds, distressed securities, preferred stock and credit derivatives. Jamie Dimon no doubt sleeps easier at night with Rosen helming the desk.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
RANK: 17 (TIED)
Christopher Ryan
CITY: Stamford, Connecticut
FIRM: UBS
AGE: 43
In charge of global credit fixed-income, Ryan watched a slew of his contemporaries leave Wall Street for conceivably greener hedge-fund pastures during the past 12 months. His former copilot at UBS, Sal Naro, resigned last year to form Sailfish Capital Partners with SAC's Mark Fishman, leaving Ryan to run the newly combined credit and fixed-income show by himself. While he spends more time running these businesses than he does actually trading, Ryan still earns a good deal of respect for the sheer enormity of the balance sheet he's helping to leverage around the world. Nice job. Nicer check.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
The Best of the Rest
RANK: 1
J.P. McManus
CITY: Geneva, Switzerland
FIRM: Cubic Expressions
AGE: 54
Once known as the Sundance Kid, McManus is a high-rolling forex trader who made headlines and also angered a lot of soccer fans when he cashed out of Machester United to "ugly American" Malcolm Glazer. The Irish-born gambling icon once made his living as a bookmaker; now he's content to satisfy his sporting jones as a racehorse owner and golf fanatic.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $75 – $100 MILLION
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RANK: 2
John Devaney
CITY: Key Biscayne, Florida
FIRM: United Capital Markets
AGE: 35
Growing up in South Florida, our cover subject was an avid boater. He has since graduated to power yachts and helicopters. Intense but even-keeled, he had another great year deploying his firm's capital to make markets in distressed asset-backed securities. Whether it's securitized aircraft leases or sub-prime home equity, Devaney (who is UCM's CEO and head trader) and his team (Evan Kestenberg, Randy White and Sean Kirk) have at their disposal the in-house research, pricing models and personal experience to decide more quickly and with more conviction when a seemingly high-risk, gone-sour ABS has become a decent value -- even if Devaney has to hold the sucker until maturity.
The firm is known to get creative. In one of its biggest deals last year, UCM accumulated about $150 million (face value) worth of distressed aircraft bonds. They then broke them apart, redeployed cash flows and purchased an insurance policy to guarantee the repayment of the first $100 million. This allowed UCM to reissue that $100 million as exotic triple-A-class paper. At the same time, UCM issued three other lower-rated subordinated classes with different risk profiles, capturing a tasty arbitrage in the process.
"A lot of people see John as this big risk taker, but the truth is he's very calculated," says one colleague. Married with three children, Devaney loves free diving. Eschewing regulators and oxygen tanks, free divers merely hold their breath while using special weights to shoot themselves down into the ocean depths. If he keeps up his trading success, by contrast.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $40–$50 MILLION
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RANK: 3
Thomas Dittmer
CITY: St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands
FIRM: Pali Capital
AGE: 63
Dittmer is an almost mythical trading figure, a bad-boy gunslinger from back in the day. He resurfaced last year to ponder a play for distressed Refco -- the firm he cofounded with his stepfather, Ray Friedman -- though his efforts didn't pan out: The remains of the disgraced company were instead snapped up by Man Financial. Most people thought Dittmer had sailed off into the Caribbean sunset for good since he cashed out of Refco seven years ago -- but to our surprise, he has quietly been trading commodities futures on a large scale, and it turns out he still has the magic touch.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $30 – $40 MILLION
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RANK: 4 (TIED)
Steven Berkson
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 42
The legend of natural-gas-futures stalwart Steve Berkson and Hurricane Katrina. One of the tallest versions of the tale has Berkson making $40 million off the opening bell the day Katrina made landfall (we heard he ended up tallying around $20 million for the week).
Lesser known is how much of that score Berky ultimately slid to relief efforts (reportedly a sizable portion). Similarly, a few tongues around town were wagging over some of Berkson's trading losses. "Everybody always wants to talk about the big wins," says one exchange member, "but never the big losses." Such losses -- plus a more defensive posture to close out the year -- may have lessened what could have been an even more immense haul.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $25 – $30 MILLION
RANK: 4 (TIED)
Mark Fisher
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 46
With competitors not only nipping at the NYMEX's heels but on the verge of clamping down on its Achilles tendon, Fisher, the exchange's strongman, sprang to his bully pulpit last year, organizing a town hall–style meeting at which members could get serious about strategic options.
Few people have more at stake in the future of the NYMEX than Fisher, who runs MBF Clearing, the primary market-making operation for the exchange's top-grossing crude-oil futures contract.
Last year, MBF cleared 24 percent of oil-futures contracts at the NYMEX, as well as 26 percent of its natural-gas contracts. Now the exchange readies to vote on selling a 10 percent stake to private-equity partner General Atlantic, a deal that throws open the door to a public offering and potentially even greater riches for its members. As it was, of course, Fisher did OK for himself last year.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $25 – $30 MILLION
RANK: 4 (TIED)
Paul Rotter
CITY: Zug, Switzerland
FIRM: Rotter Invest AG
AGE: 33
The mysterious man rivals call "The Flipper" is still at it, according to those who speak with the Eurex kingpin. Specializing in German bund, bobl and schatz futures, Rotter reportedly had at least a few successful stretches in 2005 in which he was bringing in seven figures a week.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $25 – $30 MILLION
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RANK: 7 (TIED)
Margie Teller
CITY: Chicago
EXCHANGE: CME
AGE: 43
Back-month Eurodollar futures are among the most wildly volatile instruments trading today, and the ocean liner–sized pit at the CME where these markets are made just might be the most intimidating place to engage in open-outcry battle. It's a sweet irony, then, that the biggest set of brass ones on that entire floor belongs to Margie Teller. Tough and aggressive -- yet surprisingly petite -- this legendary local still rules in an era in which most people assume that the action at the CME is fading away.
It is, and rather quickly, but with some exceptions -- one of which is in the market for the back-months Eurodollar contracts for those wishing to speculate on what the world's borrowing rates will be years from now. All the complicated intertwining butterfly trades that tie in to the back months -- for now, anyway -- can't be replicated on screens. "Margie is the most respected trader down there, period," declares one rival. And with a name like Teller, of course she's got bank.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
RANK: 7 (TIED)
David "Tiger" Williams
CITY: Stamford, CT
FIRM: Williams Trading
AGE: 44
For small to midsize hedge-fund managers seeking major-league traders to help them get in and out of positions, Williams Trading is something of a desk for hire. Founded in 1997 by Williams, a former trader at Julian Robertston's Tiger Management, the firm is a unique take on the concept of "outsourcing," trading on behalf of a host of fund managers. Williams, a former Yale hockey star (not to be confused with former NHL enforcer Dave "Tiger" Williams), remains quite the athlete, known to go cycling with Lance Armstrong. Mark down Williams's 2005 ride as a tour de force.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 - $25 MILLION
RANK: 7 (TIED)
Dan Zanger
CITY: Miami
FIRM: Chartpattern.com
AGE: 52
And GOOG shall lead him. This incurable chart hound rode the Google wave all year, enjoying a whirlwind May/November romance -- most of Zanger's 2005 income came from big returns during just those two months, much of it thanks to Google. Zanger, who famously traded his way from pool contractor to day-trading master with an $18 million run in 18 months in the late '90s, dabbled a bit in oil last year, as well as in two other hot tech stocks: Apple and SanDisk.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $20 – $25 MILLION
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RANK: 10 (TIED)
Jeff Cardot
CITY: Chicago
EXCHANGE: CME
AGE: 33
Another back-months Eurodollar star, Cardot spent many years learning from the best, partnering with legend Margie Teller (above). On his own, he's done just fine, and he's one of a handful of elite traders still making a fortune on open-outcry as it slowly dies out in the Windy City.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $15 – $20 MILLION
RANK: 10 (TIED)
Jeffrey Wolfson
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 39
Crude-oil traders don't come much bigger than the man whose badge reads GEOF. A one-man volume-generation machine, Wolfson is always active in the NYMEX Charitable Foundation, donating both time and prizes. He supposedly hates being on this list.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $15 – $20 MILLION
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RANK: 12 (TIED)
Todd Appelbaum
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 39
The nephew of NYMEX chairman Mitchell Steinhause, Appelbaum is another natural-gas guy who lit it up in 2005. "Great trader, huge volume," says one NYMEX insider.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Eric Bolling
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 44
Among the most famous natural-gas-futures traders on the floor today, Bolling, a familiar face on TV, is a protégé of NYMEX power broker Mark Fisher (above). "Some guys see Eric as too self-promotional, but he did have a huge year," says one floor broker.
A former professional baseball player who, at times, is said to account for as much as 5 percent of total volume in natty, Bolling owns two seats on the NYMEX and at least another two at The Palm Too restaurant, where he's a regular.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Michael Episcope
CITY: Chicago
EXCHANGE: CME
AGE: 35
What Margie Teller is to risky back-month Eurodollar futures contracts, Episcope is to back-month Eurodollar options. "He's fearless, always ready to trade," says one pit broker. "Always," but apparently not "forever." Word has it Episcope has recently retired.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Sandy Goldfarb
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 48
A veteran NYMEX pit trader who runs Energylinks Futures, Goldfarb (a.k.a. "Trot") knocked his natty-gas book out of the ozone layer last year amid one hurricane after another and some of the most treacherous volatility ever recorded in the decade and a half since natural-gas futures were created. Like most locals, Goldfarb relies on technical indicators more than longer-term fundamentals.
When the technicals line up, "that's when you load the boat," Goldfarb told attendees at a Natural Gas Intelligence workshop held this summer in New York. World-class energy trader, star racehorse owner, epic bash thrower, NYMEX institution. Not only is Sandy's boat fully loaded, but so are his pockets. For the record, Goldfarb insists he made less than $10 million. Our sources say otherwise.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Robert Halper
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 47
When it comes to arbing crude oil against gasoline, Bob Halper wrote the book. According to some, he will go down as one of the biggest crack-spread traders the NYMEX has ever seen. Although in recent years he's given up some ground to younger guns, one person close to the exchange says last year he helped himself to around $10 million in profits.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Daniel Lirtzman
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 29
A natural-gas "natural," Danny Lirtzman is one of a growing number of twentysomething phenoms who represent the future of the NYMEX. A Chicago native who spent time trading at Goldman Sachs, he has not only shown he has what it takes to play with the big boys, but he's beating them at their own game.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Kevin McDonnell
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 46
Known for his uncanny ability to crunch multiple complex equations simultaneously, McDonnell crossed the pond in 2005 to help kick-start the exchange's open-outcry pits in Dublin and, later, in London. Efforts to take on the ICE in Brent futures trading may have failed -- but it was no fault of McDonnell's; he took home a $300,000 bonus for his trouble. Chalk up yet another blowout year for the skinny kid from the Bronx.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Simon Posen
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 36
Hailing from Great Britain, Posen is not only a skilled natural-gas trader but, like a lot of traders, he enjoys a good game of poker. Last year's natural-gas swings produced a significant surge in Posen's trading profits.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
RANK: 12 (TIED)
Mitchell Stern
CITY: New York
EXCHANGE: NYMEX
AGE: 49
A big Mets fan and skilled natty-gas trader, Stern had a huge year, sources say. Like a lot of the guys down in the pits, he likes to stay out of the public eye. It's hard to leave him off the list, though, even at lowball estimates.
ESTIMATED INCOME: $10 – $15 MILLION
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