Aum of the largest hedge fund firms globally 2024
Citadel Investment Group was the largest hedge fund firm in the world as of 2024. The firm managed assets worth 397 billion U.S. dollars that year. It is no surprise that the leading hedge fund firm is headquartered in the United States, as the country has the largest hedge fund industry in the world.
What are hedge funds?
Hedge funds are alternative investments with freer rules than for example mutual funds, as they require less regulation from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Hedge fund managers therefore use a broad range of investment strategies which are typically not available to the traditional mutual fund manager. Some typical strategies are equity strategies, credit strategies, and macro strategies, just to name a few.
The development of hedge funds
The hedge fund industry dates to the late 1940s, when the first hedge fund strategy was created, but boomed in the 1990s. The value of assets under management of hedge funds worldwide grew markedly since the 1990s, from around 188 billion U.S. dollars in 1996, to over 5.13 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023.
