The hedge fund industry boomed in the 1990s, and the value of assets managed by hedge funds worldwide grew steadily until 2007. The value fell markedly the following year because of the financial crisis and did not recover until 2013. In 2023, the value of assets under management (AUM) of hedge funds reached over five trillion U.S. dollars. Which firms dominate the hedge fund industry? The biggest hedge funds in the market typically attain their size by combining exceptional results, a solid track record, and efficient risk management tactics. In 2023, Field Street Capital Management was the biggest hedge fund company, with nearly 298 billion U.S. dollars of assets under management. Some other prominent global hedge funds by AUM include Citadel, Bridgewater Associates, Mariner Investment Group LLC, etc. These industry giants often boast a diverse range of investment strategies and maintain a global presence, which allows them to capitalize on opportunities across diverse sectors and assets. Hedge Funds: What's changing? Hedge funds constantly tweak their investment strategies to keep up with market shifts. The cryptocurrency market introduces a novel asset class that is distinct from traditional financial markets. Therefore, the primary reason behind hedge funds investing in digital assets was to diversify their portfolios. The escalating interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology prompted hedge funds to explore new prospects and risks associated with digital assets. In 2021, the average assets under management of crypto hedge funds more than doubled from the previous year, rising from 24 to 59 million U.S. dollars.

The report covers Top Hedge Funds in UK and the market is Segmented Based on the Core Investment Strategies (Equity, Alternative Risk Premia, Crypto, Equities others, Event-Driven, Fixed Income Credit, Macro, Managed Futures, Multi-Strategy, Relative Value). The report offers market size and forecasts for the UK Hedge Funds Market in value (USD Billion) for all the above segments.

A list of the top 50 Martin Investment Management LLC holdings showing which stocks are owned by Martin Investment Management LLC's hedge fund.

As of January 2025, the Vanguard Group ranked second among global fund managers by assets under management (AUM). Rounding out the top three, Charles Schwab ranked third, managing fund assets totaling 7.32 trillion U.S. dollars. BlackRock was the largest fund manager, managing fund assets exceeding 11.48 trillion U.S. Types of investment funds. Investment funds are an important part of financial planning and investing. There are several different types of investment funds offered by fund managers, each with their own purpose and asset types. Mutual funds pool money from many investors and use that money to purchase a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and other securities. Index funds are a type of mutual fund that tracks a market index, like the S&P 500. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are a type of mutual fund, that is continuously traded on a stock exchange. ETFs often track market indexes or sectors. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) provide both retail and institutional investors with exposure to income-generating real estate assets such as office buildings, apartments and hotels, without having to fully invest in an individual property. The benefits of investment funds. The main advantage of investment funds is that they provide instant portfolio diversification. Rather than choosing just a few stocks or bonds, funds allow you to invest in a wide variety of different securities in one purchase. This helps reduce risk, as poor performance of one holding has less impact on the overall fund. Funds also provide access to professional management and research. Managers can take advantage of opportunities and insights that an individual investor may not have the ability to leverage. Finally, funds offer convenience. Investors won't be required to constantly rebalance portfolios. While costs and fees are a consideration, investment funds can be an excellent hands-off way for both retail and institutional investors to benefit from the market while spreading risk over many asset classes and securities.

A list of the top 50 Allianz Investment Management US LLC holdings showing which stocks are owned by Allianz Investment Management US LLC's hedge fund.

As of June 2024, the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth Index provided the highest one-year return rate. The Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund ranked second having a one-year return rate of 36.3 percent. As of June 2024, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund was the largest fund owned by Vanguard, with net assets under management worth approximately 1.55 trillion U.S. dollars. What is the difference between mutual funds and exchange traded funds? Both mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) originate from the concept of pooled fund investing, which bundles securities together to offer investors a more diversified portfolio. However, mutual funds and ETFs have some key differences. For instance, ETFs offer more flexible trading as they trade during the day like stocks, while mutual funds only allow transactions at the end of the day. Moreover, ETFs are mostly passively-managed and mirror a designated index. On the other hand, mutual funds are typically actively-managed, as it can be seen by comparing the number of actively and passively-managed mutual funds in the United States. Vanguard Founded by John C. Bogle in 1975, Vanguard is a U.S. asset management company that offers both mutual funds and ETFs. Headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Vanguard was the second largest provider of ETFs in the United States after BlackRock Financial Management, with assets under management worth almost 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars. Likewise, in 2024, Vanguard ranked among the largest providers of mutual funds worldwide. The total assets under management of Vanguard increased considerably since its foundation in 1975, and peaked at 8.6 trillion U.S. dollars in 2024.

A list of the top 50 Appaloosa holdings showing which stocks are owned by David Tepper's hedge fund.

The total global net assets of mutual funds registered in the United States amounted to approximately 25.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023, compared to around 5.53 trillion U.S. dollars in 1998. Mutual funds - additional information Mutual funds are investment funds in which the capital is pooled from a number of different investors and then used to buy securities such as stocks, bonds or money market instruments. Although investing in mutual funds, rather than direct investment in individual securities, still presents a certain degree of risk, it has become more and more common practice around the world. One of the biggest advantages of this type of investment is the fact that the fund assets are managed by professionals, who aim to eliminate some of the risk involved in investing in individual stocks and bonds through diversification of assets. As of 2022, there were almost 7,400 mutual funds domiciled in the United States. There are four main types of mutual funds, categorized by the nature of their principal investments, namely: stock or equity funds (whether domestic or international), bond or fixed income funds, money market funds and hybrid funds. In 2022, domestic equity funds were the most popular category in the United States, representing 46 percent of all mutual fund and ETF assets.

As of June 17, 2024, the most shorted stock was for, the American holographic technology services provider, MicroCloud Hologram Inc., with 66.64 percent of their total float having been shorted. This is a change from mid-January 2021, when video game retailed GameStop had an incredible 121.07 percent of their available shares in a short position. In effect this means that investors had 'borrowed' more shares (with a future promise to return them) than the total number of shares available for public trading. Owing to this behavior of professional investors, retail investors enacted a campaign to drive up the stock price of Gamestop, leading to losses of billions when investors had to repurchase the stock they had borrowed. At this time, a similar – but less effective – social media campaign was also carried out for the stock price of cinema operator AMC, and the price of silver. What is short selling? Short selling is essentially where an investor bets on a share price falling by: borrowing a number of shares selling these shares while the price is still high; purchasing the same number again once the price falls; then returning the borrowed shares at a profit. Of course, a profit will only be made if the share price does fall; should the share price rise the investor will then need to purchase the shares back at a higher price, and thus incur a loss. Short selling can lead to some very large profits in a short amount of time, with Tesla stock generating over one billion dollars in short sell profits during the first week of March 2020 alone, owing to the financial crash caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, owing to the short-term, opportunistic nature of short selling, these returns look less impressive when considered as net profits from short sell positions over the full year. The risks of short selling Short selling carries greater risks than traditional investments, and for this reason financial advisors often recommend against this strategy for ‘retail’ (i.e. non-professional) investors. The reason for this is that losses from short selling are potentially uncapped, whereas losses from traditional investments are limited to the initial cost. For example, if someone purchases 100 dollars of shares, the maximum they can lose is the 100 dollars the spent on those shares. However, say someone borrows 100 dollars of shares instead, betting on the price falling. If these shares are then sold for 100 dollars but the price subsequently rises, the losses could greatly exceed the initial investment should the price rise to, say, 500 dollars. The risks of short selling can be seen by looking again at Tesla, with the company causing the greatest losses over 2020 from short selling at over 40 billion U.S. dollars.

BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited was the largest retail and private client fund manager based in the United Kingdom, as of July 2024, by funds under management. BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited managed assets worth nearly 95 billion British pounds that year. The second-largest retail and private client fund manager was Legal & General Investment Management Limited, with funds under management of around 60 billion British pounds.

A list of the top 50 Allen Investment Management LLC holdings showing which stocks are owned by Allen Investment Management LLC's hedge fund.

As of September 10, 2024, BlackRock's iShares Core S&P 500 was the highest valued exchange-traded fund (ETF) globally, with a market capitalization of over 521 billion U.S. dollars. The market capitalization of an ETF is calculated by multiplying the number of shares issued in the fund by the share price. This ETF is also the second-largest ETF by assets under management - although, at over 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund is overall the largest investment fund by AUM. However, the Vanguard fund is different because shares in the fund are sold as various different products, some of which are structured as ETFs (like the third-largest fund listed in this statistic), while others are structured as traditional mutual funds. What are ETFs? ETFs are similar to mutual funds, in that they consist of a pool of investors’ funds which are managed by an independent third party for the purpose of a common financial investment. However, ETFs differ through how shares in the fund are bought and sold through a stock exchange, rather than directly from the fund manager. This provides the advantages of generally lower prices (as the transaction costs are paid by the exchange operator rather than the fund manager), and the possibility of intraday trading (as shares in a traditional mutual fund can only be bought and sold after the close of daily trading. The total assets managed by ETFs globally is almost six times lower than that of mutual funds, although the gap in AUM between ETFs and mutual funds in the United States is much lower, at just over three times less. Who are the largest ETF providers? The largest provider of ETFs globally is Blackrock, the world’s largest asset management company. As of July 2022, the company had more than 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars of assets under management in exchange traded funds in the U.S. alone, while Blackrock’s total assets under management across all products reached almost ten trillion U.S. dollars. Rounding out the top three providers of ETFs are fellow U.S asset managers Vanguard and State Street.

A list of the top 50 Pershing Square Capital Management holdings showing which stocks are owned by Bill Ackman's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 Charter Research & Investment Group Inc holdings showing which stocks are owned by Charter Research & Investment Group Inc's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 EPIQ Capital Group LLC holdings showing which stocks are owned by EPIQ Capital Group LLC's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 Smart Money Group LLC holdings showing which stocks are owned by Smart Money Group LLC's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 Farmers Trust Co holdings showing which stocks are owned by Farmers Trust Co's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 RPO LLC holdings showing which stocks are owned by RPO LLC's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 Tudor Investment holdings showing which stocks are owned by Paul Tudor Jones's hedge fund.

A list of the top 50 Shariaportfolio Inc holdings showing which stocks are owned by Shariaportfolio Inc's hedge fund.