| Investor | Key Fund/Vehicle | Period | Annualized Returns After Fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Simons | Medallion Fund | 1988 – 2018 (30) | 39.1% |
| George Soros | Quantum Fund | 1969 – 2000 (31) | 32.0% |
| Steven Cohen | SAC | 1992 – 2003 (11) | 30.0% |
| Peter Lynch | Magellan Fund | 1977 – 1990 (13) | 29.0% |
| Warren Buffett | Berkshire Hathaway | 1965 – 2018 (53) | 20.5% |
| Ray Dalio | Pure Alpha | 1991 – 2018 (27) | 12% |
RenTech has ~300 employees, and their trading profits in 2018 was $7.6b. Simmons is worth $23b. The average RenTech employee has $50m in the firm’s own hedge funds.
Simons subsidizes salaries of public school math/science teachers, funds autism research and origins of life research. Robert Mercer was Trump’s biggest donor, brought in Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, and campaigned for Brexit.
Really makes you think on the whole billionaire philanthropy debate .
But time in the market is king - at least that’s what Malkiel taught me. Ranking the returns using Bayesian methods gives: Simmons 28.0%, Soros 26.9%, Cohen 26.2%, Lynch 26.2%, Buffet 24.6%, Dalio 24.0%. Maybe I did something wrong - Dalio shouldn’t be close to Buffet. And I thought Buffet would be higher up in the new ranking.