7. Israel "Izzy" Englander
Israel "Izzy" Englander is the founder, chairman, and CEO of New York-based hedge fund Millennium Management. The fund is a very active trader and employs advanced strategies, including merger arbitrage, convertible arbitrage, and long-short investing. Englander's investing approach is to make small bets that diversify risk so that no single investment can significantly affect returns. His strategy has been very successful, with Millennium averaging a 14% annual return since its founding in 1989. Englander's strategy is a good reminder to investors of the importance of diversification for reducing risk.
8. George Soros
George Soros founded the hedge fund company Soros Fund Management in 1973, which later became the Quantum Fund. He's an aggressive and highly successful hedge fund manager who consistently generates annual portfolio returns of more than 30%, with the gains for two of those years exceeding 100%. Soros nets spectacular gains by making massive directional short-term bets on currencies and other financial instruments, including stocks and bonds.
9. Ken Griffin
Ken Griffin is the founder and CEO of hedge fund Citadel. He also owns Citadel Securities, one of the country's largest market makers. Griffin has helped build Citadel into one of the world's most profitable hedge funds, making Griffin a very wealthy man. Griffin has been using his vast wealth to transform lives by donating more than $2 billion toward education, opportunity, and health science causes.
10. Stanley Druckenmiller
Stanley Druckenmiller is the founder of Duquesne Capital, a hedge fund he ran from its founding in 1981 until its closure in 2010. He was also the lead portfolio manager for George Soros' Quantum Fund from 1988 through 2000. Druckenmiller is a top-down investor, focusing first on the macroeconomic environment to identify sectors to invest in before selecting individual stocks. That strategy led to some very successful bets for Druckenmiller at Duquesne and the Quantum Fund, including one that made $1 billion on a trade to short the British pound sterling in 1992.
11. Cathie Wood
Cathie Wood is the founder, CEO, and chief investment officer of Ark Invest, an investment management company that establishes and actively manages a portfolio of ETFs. One of the firm's top ETFs, the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK +0.79%), has produced a 275% gain since its inception (13% annualized). Investing in innovation is at the heart of Ark's strategy. Wood is always looking for "the next big thing" because companies delivering disruptive innovation have the potential to deliver the highest returns over the long term.
