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Day: December 7, 2022

Ranked: The World’s 20 Biggest Hedge Funds

by Avery Koop
This post is by Avery Koop from Visual Capitalist

the world's biggest hedge funds

The Briefing

  • Bridgewater Associates remains the top hedge fund by assets under management (AUM)
  • Brevan Howard witnessed strong growth in AUM, moving from 26th to 19th in the ranking

Ranked: The World’s 20 Biggest Hedge Funds

Collectively, the world’s 15,000 hedge funds manage around $4.5 trillion in assets for their clients, weathering economic storms and world events to ensure returns.

This visual breaks down the world’s biggest hedge funds in terms of assets under management using data from Pensions & Investments.

The Top 20

The world’s biggest hedge fund by a mile is Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates. At the time of this ranking, Bridgewater managed over $126 billion in assets for clients as wide ranging as university endowment funds, charities, and foreign country’s central banks.

Here’s a closer look at the ranking:

RankHedge FundAssets (millions USD)Headquarters
#1Bridgewater Associates$126,400🇺🇸 U.S.
#2Man Group$73,500🇬🇧 UK
#3Renaissance Technologies$57,000🇺🇸 U.S.
#4Millennium Management$54,968🇺🇸 U.S.
#5Citadel$52,970🇺🇸 U.S.
#6D.E. Shaw Group$47,861🇺🇸 U.S.
#7Two Sigma Investments/Advisers$40,969🇺🇸 U.S.
#8Davidson Kempner Capital Management$37,450🇺🇸 U.S.
#9Farallon Capital Management$37,400🇺🇸 U.S.
#10TCI Fund Management$36,200🇬🇧 UK
#11Marshall Wace$34,400🇬🇧 UK
#12Ruffer$31,662🇬🇧 UK
#13AOR Capital Management$28,200🇺🇸 U.S.
#14Anchorage Capital Group$27,100🇺🇸 U.S.
#15Baupost Group$26,300🇺🇸 U.S.
#16Point72 Asset Management$26,100🇺🇸 U.S.
#17Capula Investment Management$25,000🇬🇧 UK
#18Wellington Management$24,968🇺🇸 U.S.
#19Brevan Howard Asset Management$23,353🇬🇧 UK
#20PIMCO$23,054🇺🇸 U.S.

This (Read more...)

Join Us as We Reveal Game-Changing Predictions for 2023

by Niccolo Conte
This post is by Niccolo Conte from Visual Capitalist

As 2022 comes to a close, this past year was packed with uncertainty and volatility across international borders and markets.

  • Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has worn on, entrenching geopolitical divides
  • Energy prices have surged around the world with record-setting volatility
  • Markets await the Fed’s pivot on interest rates as a global recession looms

To help you navigate the year ahead, we’re giving a glimpse into the future at what experts are predicting for 2023 with the upcoming Global Forecast Series.

The 2023 Global Forecast Series

Over the next few weeks, VC+ members will be receiving the ultimate cheatsheet for 2023, giving them a head start into the New Year.

This includes an in-depth report curating the most important insights from 300+ expert predictions for 2023, access to an exclusive webinar and Q&A session, along with a recap of how expert predictions panned out this past year.

To gain access to the 2023 Global Forecast Series and more, join VC+ and all these special features will be sent straight to your inbox.

Sign Up for VC+
 

Need more details? Here’s what we have in store:

“2023 Global Forecast Report”

REPORT: Your Guide to 2023’s Expert Predictions and Trends to Watch Out For

The 2023 Global Forecast Report will reveal the pivotal trends that will shape our world next year. Compiling hundreds of expert predictions, we distill their insights for 2023 into one essential report.

From how current geopolitical clashes and tensions will unfold to market and industry forecasts, this report will contain everything you (Read more...)

Disruptive Materials: Visualizing America’s Import Dependency

by Aran Ali
This post is by Aran Ali from Visual Capitalist

The following content is sponsored by Global X ETFs

The Briefing

  • The U.S. is 100% import dependent on manganese and graphite
  • China and Canada are the two nations the U.S. is most import reliant on

America’s Import Dependency for Disruptive Materials

The U.S. is expected to see surging demand for disruptive materials, which are those deemed to have high level importance for their role in next generation technologies. But many of these disruptive materials like manganese, cobalt, and lithium are primarily imported from foreign countries.

This graphic from Global X ETFs takes a closer look at Americas reliance on net imports for these disruptive materials. Countries are ranked by how many commodities of which the U.S. is a net importer. And net importer is defined as over 50% of domestic use or consumption comes from foreign sources rather than domestic production.

Ranking Country Reliance

The U.S. imports commodities from a lot of countries, including from economic rivals. And these commodities include well known ones like nickel, zinc, and lithium, which are critical to climate-friendly technologies. However, the data reveals that there are a select number of countries where dependency is highest. Here’s a look at the top eight countries.

CountryNumber of Commodities Net Import Reliant
🇨🇳 China 19-23
🇨🇦 Canada13-18
🇷🇺 Russia 7-12
🇮🇳 India7-12
🇧🇷 Brazil7-12
🇿🇦 South Africa 7-12
🇩🇪 Germany7-12
🇲🇽 Mexico7-12

The U.S. is most dependent on China where they are net import reliant on 19-23 different commodities, followed by Canada with 13-18. In addition, the U.S. (Read more...)

Ideas That Changed My Life

by Collab Fund
This post is by Collab Fund from Collab Fund

You spend years trying to learn new stuff but then look back and realize that maybe like 10 big ideas truly changed how you think and drive most of what you believe.

Brent Beshore recently listed the biggest ideas that changed his life. A few of mine:

Everyone belongs to a tribe and underestimates how influential that tribe is on their thinking. There is little correlation between climate change denial and scientific literacy. But there is a strong correlation between climate change denial and political affiliation. That’s an extreme example, but everyone has views persuaded by identity over pure analysis. There’s four parts to this:

  • Tribes are everywhere: Countries, states, parties, companies, industries, departments, investment styles, economic philosophies, religions, families, schools, majors, credentials, Twitter communities.

  • People are drawn to tribes because there’s comfort in knowing others understand your background and goals.

  • Tribes reduce the ability to challenge ideas or diversify your views because no one wants to lose support of the tribe.

  • Tribes are as self-interested as people, encouraging ideas and narratives that promote their survival. But they’re exponentially more influential than any single person. So tribes are very effective at promoting views that aren’t analytical or rational, and people loyal to their tribes are very poor at realizing it.

Psychologist Geoffrey Cohen once showed Democratic voters supported Republican proposals when they were attributed to fellow Democrats more than they supported Democratic proposals attributed to Republicans (and the opposite for Republican voters). This kind of stuff happens everywhere, in every (Read more...)

When Will Air Travel Return to Pre-Pandemic Levels?

by Carmen Ang
This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist

when will air travel return to pre-pandemic levels?

When Will Air Travel Return to Pre-Pandemic Levels?

Many industries were hit hard by the global pandemic, but it can be argued that air travel suffered one of the most severe blows.

The aviation industry as a whole suffered an estimated $370 billion loss in global revenue because of COVID-19. And while air travel has been slowly recovering from the trough, flight passenger traffic has yet to fully bounce back.

Where is the industry at in 2022 compared to pre-COVID times, and when is air passenger travel expected to return to regular levels? This graphic by Julie R. Peasley uses data from IATA to show current and projected air passenger ridership.

Air Travel Traffic: 2021 and 2022

After an incredibly difficult 2020, the airline industry started to see significant improvements in travel frequency. But compared to pre-pandemic levels, there’s a lot of ground to cover.

In 2021, overall passenger numbers only reached 47% of 2019 levels. This influx was largely driven by domestic travel, with international passenger numbers only reaching 27% of pre-COVID levels.

Passenger numbers (% of 2019)20212022
International27%69%
Domestic61%93%
Africa46%76%
Asia Pacific40%68%
Caribbean44%72%
Central America72%96%
Europe40%86%
Middle East42%81%
North America56%94%
South America51%88%
Industry-wide47%83%

From a regional perspective, Central America experienced one of the fastest recoveries. In 2021, overall passenger numbers in the region had reached 72% of 2019 levels, and they are projected to (Read more...)

Ragnarök — Twilight of the Canadian University System

by Joseph

This is Joseph.

After the end of Laurentian University's insolvency process via the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) has revealed a previously sealed communication and it is explosive. What is crazy about the response to a bailout is the reason WHY. 
MCU’s Proposal prohibits the commencement of a CCAA filing but does not appear to consider the additional cash requirements, increased risk and personal exposure that arises after February 1, 2021 if a CCAA proceeding is not commenced. During our meeting with MCU representatives on January 21, 2021 when the terms of the MCU Proposal were outlined and referred to as final, we asked if MCU was prepared to provide some form of protection or indemnity to Board members for the increased liability that they would be exposed to, if the MCU Proposal was accepted and a CCAA proceeding was therefore not commenced. The response we received was that this would not be provided.

What is this liability?  

The letter suggests that the Faculty Union was about to go to court to force the release of documents “that put our financial position, including the historical practice of not setting aside restricted funds, into the public domain”.  This, it turns out, is the crux of the matter.  The university’s decision, sometime around 2015 probably, to raid the restricted funds for the purposes of funding various renovations and construction (a practice euphemistically referred to as “internal lending” in Laurentian’s Financial Statements – this stuff was hiding in plain sight all along) (Read more...)