The Top Hedge Funds of 2024
Rubric led the pack at 81.5% followed by Light Street and Whale Rock
In 2024, the S&P 500 returned at least 20% for the second consecutive year, marking the first occurrence since 1998. The S&P 500 generated a 25.73% total return while the Nasdaq 100 increased by 28.02%.
The market environment was ideal for equity hedge funds, unlike 2022 when macro funds led the way. Rubric Capital topped the charts with an 81.5% return while Tiger Cub hedge funds Light Street and Discovery Capital made the top 5 for the second year in a row.
Said Haidar’s Haidar Jupiter fund was the recipient of another disastrous performance. After returning 70% in 2021 and 193% in 2022, it lost 43% in 2023 and another 33% in 2024.
Rubric Capital
Headed by David Rosen, a Point72/SAC Capital alum, Rubric initially operated within Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital with $150 million of seed capital. That $150 million eventually became $3.5 billion.
SAC Capital was the first hedge fund to manage over $1 billion, $10 billion, and $20 billion. However, the firm crumbled and returned external capital following insider trading charges. Rubric shut down in 2015 before it was relaunched in 2016. SAC Capital rebranded as Point72.
For more on the SAC Capital fiasco:
Rosen has characterized Rubric as “deep-value investors.” The $4.1 billion hedge fund has an average 13F holding period of 6.82 quarters, which drops down to 4.3 quarters when only considering its top 10 positions. Rubric lost 0.9% in 2023 and gained 38% in 2022.
Number of Positions: 65
Top New Positions: TLN, UAL, THS, DK, EMBC
Top Buys: TLN, VST, UAL, THS, DK
Top Sales: JAZZ, PLAY, VYX, COOP, COLL
Talen Energy (TLN) was a new position for Rubric during Q3, instantly becoming its top 13F position with a 33.02% allocation. TLN is up by 25% since Sept. 30.
Rubric’s second and third largest positions, Teva (TEVA) and Roivant Sciences (ROIV), are both pharmaceutical companies. Roivant was actually founded by Vivek Ramaswamy and has a very controversial history.
Rubric’s low exposure to tech companies in the year of the AI revolution makes its 81.5% return even more impressive.
Light Street
Light Street continued its comeback with a second-place return of 59.4%. The fund lost 26% in 2021 and 54% in 2022 before gaining 45.7% in 2023.
Led by Glen Kacher, Light Street’s returns were driven by its massive bets on Nvidia (NVDA), Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which made up 39.76% of its 13F portfolio.
The $821.2 million hedge fund has a top 10 position concentration of 75.31% and an average 13F holding period of 4.23 quarters.
Number of Positions: 22
Top New Positions: GTLB, GEV
Top Buys: GTLB, AMD, FROG, CLBT, BE
Top Sales: DELL, PSTG, CLS, NTAP, CRM
Whale Rock
Alex Sacerdote’s Whale Rock tallied in at third place with a 54.1% return. Like Light Street, its semiconductor positions boosted its returns. In addition, Whale Rock also made timely bets on Celestica (CLS), AppLovin (APP), and Duolingo (DUOL).
Whale Rock manages $8.7 billion and has an average 13F holding period of 5.81 quarters.
Number of Positions: 36
Top New Positions: CVNA, VRT, RBLX, CRWD, CRM
Top Buys: CVNA, VRT, KVYO, RBLX, MPWR
Top Sales: MSFT, NVDA, PINS, QCOM, AAPL
For more on Whale Rock and Alex Sacerdote:
Tiger Cubs
Both Light Street and Discovery Capital finished in the top 5 while Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine just missed the top 10 with a 36% return. D1 Capital, led by Tiger Grandcub Dan Sundheim, saw it public portfolio return 44.6%.
The rest of the Tiger Cubs trailed the market in 2024.
Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global returned 23.8% while Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management gained 18.7%. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global provided a disappointing 11.4% return.
Meanwhile, Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital has yet to disclose its returns. As a reminder, hedge funds aren’t required to disclose their returns to the public under SEC guidelines, only to their clients.
Thanks for reading! For those interested in the top hedge funds of previous years:
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$AMZN, $AMZN, $AMZN … and … $AMZN I thought I would see more NVDA to be honest