John Paulson: The Hedge Funder Who Made Too Much

Portfolio:

In an era in which losers are universal and making a profit seems somehow shady, Paulson is the most conspicuous of Wall Street's winners. Paulson & Co.'s funds (with an estimated $36 billion under management and growing by the day) were up a staggering $15 billion as the markets teetered in 2007; one fund gained 590 percent, another 353 percent.

All this reportedly garnered him a personal payday of $3.7 billion, among the biggest in history. In 2008, his funds didn't climb nearly as much but were still successful enough to put him at the very top of his profession. By scoring returns of this magnitude, Paulson has dwarfed the success of George Soros, whose currency trades in the 1990s made him so much money that he has spent much of the rest of his career atoning for them.

Read the whole story: Portfolio

Comments

[shyamg22]

andrew lahde was an ex-hedgie that got close to or broke the 1000% return on one his funds in 2007 that bet against subprime.

Shorts serve a vital function in a healthy marketplace. They provide liquidity and act as 'whistleblowers'. jim chanos was a hedgie that shed the lights on the issues at enron.

[research]

Ban all derivatives and all Shorts.

Shorts encourage nasty rumors to bring down companies and economies.

He was lucky.

[DuganS1]

Derivatives and short selling are vital in keeping an orderly functioning healthy market. These tools help investors to hedge and for fair price discovery.

[IllinoisTexan43]

"orderly functioning healthy market" Expert Corporate Apologist.

[research]

How did we every live without them?

Huh????

[luke150]

I am glad I don't see any of the regular, "hedge-fund-bashing" comments here. There are rotten apples everywhere, but usually many long-term hedge fund managers are rather good. Paulson saw the problems and had the courage to put his money against the then prevailing public sentiments. A significant chunk of hedge fund managers' money is put to risk by them which makes them different from the average, big-bank-owned investment managers.

[Emerald1943]

Any relation to Henry Paulson???

[luke150]

No.

[jeffp26]

Paulson did absolutely nothing wrong.

There were people warning that the banking system was a joke. Only a few listened.

He should be the head of the US Treasury.

[northstar11]

he bet against the wall street madness and made billions.?????

why is obama surrounding himself with all the wall street "losers"

here is a guy who sees the forest in spite of the trees.