The income of the highest paid fund managers of 2011 is equivalent to seven times the Mega Millions lottery jackpot of $540 million.
According to the AR list of highest paid HedgeFund managers, the reward that Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates received for their bets on the market amounted to $390 billion dollars.
The 25 highest paid HedgeFund managers took home an average of $576 million dollars each.
And that makes it a bad year. For 2011, the total salaries of the top 25 managers of hedge estates fell 35% to $22 billion.
That wage decline occurred in a year when hedge funds reported lower returns in the stock market. The HedgeFund Intelligence Global Composite Index lost by 2%, while the benchmark S & P 500 ended the year with no losses.
“HedgeFund managers are paid high fees to generate absolute returns regardless of market directions. In 2011, most managers could not do it,” says Michael Peltz, editor of AR.
The HedgeDund Dalio is also the world’s largest, with $120 billion dollars in total assets under their management.
In second place in the highest paid managers is Carl Icahn, who won $250 billion dollars in 2011. Icahn offered investors a return of 34.5% before fees.
However, his salary in 2012 might not be as juicy. Despite having launched an activist campaign against Lions Gate Entertainment, Icahn sold his shares in the company before the blockbuster “The Hunger Games” could drive the stock price of the producer.
The founder of Renaissance Technologies, James Simons, is third, with a salary of $210 billion. Although Simons retired from active management, he still has an equity invested in the fund, which produces large profits.
Kenneth Griffin of Citadel and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital hold the fourth and fifth place with earnings of $700 and $585 million respectively.
Some of the highest paid managers in recent years saw their Midas touch disappear in 2011. Of the 25 managers with high wages in 2010, 15 failed to enter the list of 2011.
John Paulson, founder of Paulson & Co., failed to enter the select list of AR for the first time since 2007, after the hedge fund signature generated between 30% and 50% in losses. In 2010, Paulson was the highest paid manager in the AR list, with a salary of $490 billion.
Eight hedge fund managers appear for the first time in the 2011 list. Among them are Greg Jensen and Robert Prince, co-heads of investment in Bridgewater, and Paul Singer of Elliott Management Corp.AR
