Daniel S. Och Firm: Och-Ziff Capital Management Group Headquarters: New York Earnings: $170 million
Daniel S. Och Firm: Och-Ziff Capital Management Group Headquarters: New York Earnings: $170 million The performance of Och-Ziff’s Master Fund was flat in 2011, but the firm’s stock price took a disproportionate beating, falling 37% over the year. It wasn’t all bad for the company’s namesake, however, who earned $1.07 in cumulative dividends per share in 2011, much of which was the bounty of a good 2010. Och’s firm manages $29 billion and its founder is cautiously optimistic heading into 2012, seeing opportunity in Asian equities where macroeconomic conditions have depressed market prices below fundamental values.
Biggest Net Worth Hedge Fund Managers
STYLE GUIDE
Trader: Seeks to exploit short-term volatility in the price of a security. The trader need not have an opinion on the merits of a company whose stock he trades, or the appropriateness of a particular exchange rate—just an opinion on the short-term direction of the securities.
Stock Picker: Differs from the trader in that stock pickers tend to analyze a company’s (or an industry’s or a country’s) fundamental business and make informed bets on their future direction. Tends to hold positions longer than a trader. Activist stock pickers try to personally intervene in company affairs. CEOs hate them.
Distressed Investor: Buys and sells the securities of companies in trouble, where there tends to be larger-than-usual differences of opinion over the relative merits of a stock or bond. Can also become an activist and attempt to take control of a company by buying a majority of its equity or, in bankruptcy, its debt.
Quantitative Investor: Generally relies on software-driven models that analyze historical trading patterns to inform current investment decisions, seek out price inefficiencies, or crunch financial-statement data in order to determine a theoretical price. It’s all numbers, no guts.
