These 10 most successful investors in the world don’t have much in common aside from their obscene net worths. They come from different backgrounds, went to different schools, and use different strategies in their approach to beating the market. Most of them have used hedge funds as their path to financial success, managing other peoples’ money successfully, which lead to giant paydays for themselves. Others have also invested their own money via various holding companies.
What these hedge fund billionaires do have in common is that they have made fortunes for themselves and their clients who trusted them with their money. Their returns are the envy of Wall Street. Their followers (yes, they have followers, just like rock stars) cling to their every word, trying to discern the pearls of wisdom that pass these financial moguls’ lips. Some of them have even come up with names for themselves, like bogleheads, who live and die by the rules of investment set by John Bogle during his tenure as the CEO of the Vanguard Fund. For the most part, they have risen to the top of the modern-day financial pyramid through hard work and ingenuity, as the majority of them had very humble beginnings.
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There are plenty of successful investors out there, such as can be seen our list of The 40 Biggest Hedge Fund Billionaires, but we decided to create the ultimate one. When all is said and done, there’s really only one parameter investors’ success can be judged by, and that is their own personal wealth. So, as our ultimate metric, we used their net worth, according to Forbes’ List of The World’s Billionaires. Most of them own enough money to buy some smaller countries and employ thousands of workers, either directly or through their subsidiaries. Combined with the funds at their disposal, each of them holds enough power to exert considerable force over the market, which is why it’s important to know who they are and what stocks they like or don’t like.
In this list of most successful investors in the world, we’ll take a look at the greatest investors in the world today and examine the top holdings of their firms, so you know where the richest people in the world are putting their money.
10. Ken Griffin
Investment Firm: Citadel Investment Group
Net Worth: $7.5 Billion
Ken Griffin started his first hedge fund while a second-year student at Harvard. It was a success, and he managed to survive the 1987 crisis with his funds intact. After graduation, he received $1 million from Frank C. Meyer to invest as he saw fit. According to some, Griffin realized a 70% return on this investment. In 1990 he decided to go into business by himself and started Citadel, with a humble $4.6 million in investment money. It took him just eight years to reach $1 billion in assets under management. Griffin first appeared on the Forbes 400 in 2003 with a net worth of $650 million. Today, he is worth $7.5 Billion. And now, let’s see who else we have in our list of most successful investors in the world.
Top Holding: Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)
9. John Paulson
Investment Firm: Paulson & Co
Net Worth: $8.6 Billion
John Paulson ranks 9th in our list of most successful investors in the world. He came to prominence in 2007, when he made his first billions betting against the U.S. subprime mortgage lending market. In 2010 he made almost $5 billion in a single year, which could be the record for any hedge fund. Paulson is a Republican and funded Mitt Romney’s bid for the presidency in 2012. He is currently serving as one of Donald Trump’s economic advisors. Gregory Zuckerman wrote a book about him in 2009 called “The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History”.
Top Holding: Shire PLC (ADR) (NASDAQ:SHPG)
8. David Tepper
Investment Firm: Appaloosa Management
Net Worth: $11.4 Billion
The title of the wealthiest person in New Jersey goes to David Tepper. One of the fastest rising stars in the investment world, Tepper definitely deserved a place in our list of most successful investors in the world. He was the top earner among hedge fund managers for two straight years in 2012 and 2013, adding $2.2 billion and $3.5 billion respectively to his wealth, while he’s ranked fourth this year. If he continues at his current pace, Tepper’s going to hold a much higher spot on the list of greatest investors in the world in a few years.
Top Holding: Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)
7. Steve Cohen
Investment Firm: Point72 Asset Management
Net Worth: $13 Billion
After he was forced to close S.A.C Capital to outside investors due to an insider trading scandal, he converted it into Point72 Asset Management, a family office managing some $13 billion. Cohen’s ban on handling other people’s money will expire in 2018 and he is eagerly preparing for that moment, with new offices opening in London. Hopefully, the man once dubbed “the hedge fund king” by the Wall Street Journal will regain his position among the most successful investors in the world.
Top Holding: Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
6. Carl Icahn
Investment Firm: Icahn Capital LP
Net Worth: $15.5 Billion
Carl Icahn ranks 6th in our list of most successful investors in the world. He is one of the legends of Wall Street. Icahn’s life could have gone in a very different direction had he continued with the medical school he enrolled in as a young man. Eventually, he decided he didn’t like working with corpses and went to work as a stockbroker for Dreyfus & Co. He’s best known for his aggressive takeover tactics and corporate raids. At the moment, he is on a losing streak, with 2016 shaping to be the third-straight year of losses for his fund Icahn Capital. Perhaps that is the reason for his more active involvement in politics and endorsement for Donald Trump. Trump announced that Icahn is his choice for the Treasury Secretary should he win the upcoming presidential elections. Not bad for a medical school dropout.
Top Holding: Icahn Enterprises L.P. (NASDAQ:IEP)
5. Ray Dalio
Investment Firm: Bridgewater Associates
Net Worth: $15.6 billion
The story goes that Ray Dalio, the number 5 in our list of most successful investors in the world bought his first stock when he was 12, back in the 1960s. He had some money stashed away from caddying at the local golf club and he invested it in Northeast Airlines. The stock tripled in value shortly after. Since then Dalio has been going from success to success. In 2007 he predicted the 2008 financial crisis and wrote an essay ‘How the Economic Machine Works’.
Top Holding: Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fd (NYSEARCA:VWO)
Bridgewater’s top holding on June 30 was the Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fd (NYSEARCA:VWO), in which it had over $2.46 billion invested. The ETF is designed to mimic the stock picks and performance of the FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index, which houses about 3,500 stocks from emerging markets, weighted by market cap. Some of the top names carried by the ETF are Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG:0700), Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd.(TPE:2330), and Naspers Limited (JSE:NPN), which are traded on the Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Johannesburg stock exchanges respectively. The Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fd (NYSEARCA:VWO) has gained 14.55% this year, but is down by over 13% over the past five years, as many emerging markets have failed to develop as rapidly as expected. Eight other hedge funds in our database owned shares of the ETF at the end of June.
4. James Simons
Investment Firm: Renaissance Technologies
Net Worth: $16.5 Billion
Whenever your kids ask you what’s the use of algebra in real life, just point them to Jim Simons, the number 4 in our list of most successful investors in the world. A mathematician with experience in cryptology and pattern recognition, Simons decided to swap his chair as the Head of Department of Mathematics at Stony Brook University with that of an investment manager. His first career brought him accolades among the mathematicians of the world, while his second has made him one of the greatest investors in the world and extremely wealthy.
Top Holding: Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO)
Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) recently topped the list of the top performing CEOs in the world, as its CEO ranked first in a study conducted by Harvard Business Review. Nonetheless, that CEO has announced that he will step down at the end of year, turning the reins over to Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, who is already working feverishly to adapt its drug pipeline and R&D spending to best meet the current challenges and opportunities in the market. Those changes have already resulted in the shelving of an oral insulin drug that was in development, and it’s expected that the Danish company will instead focus on treatments to combat diabetes and obesity. Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) shares have tumbled by 38% this year but have gained 856% over the past decade; Simons has been a shareholder of the stock during that entire period.
3. George Soros
Investment Firm: Soros Fund Management
Net Worth: $16.5 Billion
George Soros ranks 3rd in our list of most successful investors in the world. He has come a long way from being a Jewish boy in war-torn Hungary, to being an immigrant who put himself through the London School of Economics by doing various jobs, to becoming the man who broke the Bank of England on Black Wednesday in 1992. Soros made more than $1 billion on that day and ensured his place among the financial world’s legends. His later assaults on the Thai and Malaysian currencies led Paul Krugman to issue his famous critique: “Nobody who has read a business magazine in the last few years can be unaware that these days there really are investors who not only move money in anticipation of a currency crisis but actually do their best to trigger that crisis for fun and profit. These new actors on the scene do not yet have a standard name; my proposed term is ‘Soroi’.”
Top Holding: Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK)
The top long position held by George Soros’ family office on June 30 was in Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK), part of the giant Liberty media empire. Soros picked a great time to take a $533 million stake in the company in the second quarter, as shares have gained nearly 10% since the end of that quarter, netting the family office a sizable profit of nearly $50 million on the investment as of now. Liberty Broadband owns about a 20% stake in Charter Communications (which happens to be the next billionaire investor’s top stock pick), as well as full ownership of True Position, whose subsidiary Skyhook is a leader in global precision location. Liberty Broadband has three classes of stock, of which Soros owns the Class C, non-voting shares of. Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK) shares were held by 43 of the money managers tracked by Insider Monkey as of June 30. No wonder it’s on our list of most successful investors in the world, right?
2. Jorge Paulo Lemann
Investment Firm: 3G Capital
Net Worth: $27.8 Billion
When Jorge Paulo Lemann, who ranks second in our list of most successful investors in the world, relocated his family from Brazil to Switzerland after the attempted kidnapping of his son, one of the unintended consequences was that he became the richest person in both countries. The majority owner of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (ADR) (NYSE:BUD), the largest brewer in the world, Lemann’s 3G Capital has made some of the most aggressive moves in the investment world, including the joint purchase of Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) with Warren Buffett. He is currently trying to restore Burger King to its former glory after purchasing the company for $3.26 billion in 2010 and later merging it with Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons to become Restaurant Brands International Inc. (NYSE:QSR).
Top Holding: Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR)
3G Capital’s top holding at the end of June was Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR), in which it held 563,266 shares valued at $128.79 million. The addition was a new one to its portfolio, the result of its former top pick Time Warner Cable being acquired by Charter during the second quarter. Charter shares have gained nearly 10% since the completion of its merger with TWC and Bright House, and the stock was recently added to the S&P 500. However, shares have trended down over the past six weeks, as have earnings estimates, with M Science recently lowering its estimates due to deceleration in September. Charter reports its third quarter results on Thursday. Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) was the fourth-most popular stock among the investors we track on June 30, being held by 134 of them.
1. Warren Buffett
Investment Firm: Berkshire Hathaway
Net Worth: $64.6 Billion
Unsurprisingly, the top spot among the most successful investors in the world goes to Warren Buffett. Judging from his frugal lifestyle, it is hard to fathom that he is the third-richest person in the world. The start of his success is often tied to his purchase of Berkshire Hathaway, although he has said on more than one occasion that it was the worst investment he ever made and that despite its success it has cost him over $200 billion in lost interest in the 45 years since. Be that as it may, Berkshire Hathaway is now the sixth-most valuable public company in the U.S. Buffett is also the only person on this list who has publicly stated that his taxes should be higher. As can be imagined, that didn’t earn him many plaudits from his colleagues on Wall Street.
Top Holding: Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC)
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) had been Warren Buffett’s top stock pick for three years before it was supplanted by Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) this year. As mentioned above, Buffett teamed up with Jorge Paulo Lemann in bringing Kraft and Heinz together, creating the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world, which is 26.8% owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and 25.1% owned by Lemann’s 3G Capital. The entity now owns 13 different brands worth at least $500 million, and eight brands worth at least $1 billion. Bernstein analyst Alexia Howard recently said that Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC)’s shares could gain more than 70% by 2024 if the company is able to make at least three transformational acquisitions by then and grow its global market share in packaged foods to 8.9% from its current 1.5%. Kraft Heinz was owned by 60 of the hedge funds that we track as of June 30.
