How the hedge fund superstar went extinct
- This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.
Hello! Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become the party's nominee for president. Harris said she was looking forward to formally accepting the nomination at the Democratic Party Convention next month.
But for now, we're examining how the hedge fund superstar has gone extinct.
What's on deck:
- Markets: What Wall Street is expecting ahead of Tesla's earnings.
- Tech: Google u-turns on its plans to kill the third-party cookie.
- Business: Duolingo's trick for teaching you a language? Being mean.
But first, the stars aren't shining as bright anymore.
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The big story
So long, superstar
Where have all the hedge fund superstars gone?
An industry built on big names drawing even bigger money has faced a marked shift. The days of investors trusting a star hedge-fund manager with their cash are in the rearview mirror, writes Business Insider's Linette Lopez.
In years past, even rubbing shoulders with a legendary hedge fund manager was enough for aspiring fund managers to raise capital. The late Julian Robertson and his empire of so-called "Tiger Cubs" prove that.
But, unlike years ago, hedge funds are no longer the only game in town for institutions or the ultra-wealthy looking to park their cash somewhere. Venture capital, private credit, and private equity have grown considerably over the past decade.
Meanwhile, the hedge fund industry has also evolved. The number of quantitative funds, where the stars are the models rather than an individual's mind, has grown.
And the big names that remain in the industry are starting to resemble Wall Street banks in their size and complexity. Ken Griffin's Citadel and Izzy Englander's Millennium Management have filled their ranks with Goldman Sachs alumni to help oversee their ever-growing operations.
Megafunds like Citadel and Millennium sucking up all the oxygen are also making it harder for new funds to raise money.
Bobby Jain had two decades of experience at Credit Suisse and was the co-chief investment officer of Millennium when he decided to set up his own shop.
His fund, Jain Global, went live this month with a reported $5.3 billion in assets. As eye-popping as that number is, it's well short of his initial target of $8 billion to $10 billion.
Jain's high hopes were motivated by being the largest hedge fund launch in history, a title held by ExodusPoint, which launched with more than $8 billion in capital. But ExodusPoint, which also counts two Millennium alums as its cofounders, has had its own struggles in recent years.
But as the old saying goes, it's always darkest before dawn. All Wall Street needs is a couple of breakout stars to flip the script, and the potential is out there.
Aaron Weiner, a 31-year-old from Coatue, got a multibillion-dollar check from Millennium for his to-be-launched hedge fund. And Jonathan Xiong's Arrowpoint Investment Partners launched with $1 billion thanks to backing from Blackstone and Canada's largest pension fund.
3 things in markets
- Tesla's time to shine. The EV maker reports earnings after the bell today. Wall Street is bullish on Elon Musk's company after a rough start to the year, and is excited for updates on Tesla's plans for Robotaxi and full self-driving.
- Are mega-cap tech stocks' best days behind them? Smaller stocks have been on an incredible run this month. But Big Tech has a chance to remind investors why it's been the market's top pick for years with a slew of earnings reports.
- Small-cap stocks may not stay high forever, though. Wall Street is split on whether small-cap stocks will continue their recent winning streak. Bank of America identified two key metrics to watch to determine if the wins will continue.
3 things in tech
- Founders claim a startup incubator left a trail of broken promises. AI Forge promised participants in Miami and London cash up front and help with launching their startups. But several founders told BI they had trouble getting paid and were underwhelmed with what they got. AI Forge's cofounder said participants expected too much.
- Apple aims to slim streaming service. AppleTV+ has a reputation for spending a lot on its movies and shows. The problem is that not a lot of people watch them. Now, Apple wants to cut back, but it's not clear how it plans to do that — or why it's running a streaming service in the first place.
- Google is scrapping its plan to kill off third-party cookies. After spending years preparing for their demise, Google announced it won't be killing cookies in Chrome. Instead, it will let users opt into having the trackers in their browser.
3 things in business
- E-commerce eats everything, except luxury goods. Though e-commerce has revolutionized retail, we still like to buy the nicest, most expensive items IRL. That's because part of buying luxury is the experience of being pampered, and we like to feel fancy when we buy fancy.
- Meanness and meme-ness are Duolingo's bread and butter. The bratty green Duolingo owl is something of a social media influencer, with a sassy personality that users can't get enough of. Its online presence and relentless nagging have driven the company to record profits and growth.
- The results of Sam Altman's basic-income study are in. For three years, low-income participants received $1,000 a month, no strings attached. They put the bulk of their extra money towards basic needs like rent and food, but researchers found it didn't directly improve their mental or physical health. Here's everything the study found.
In other news
- Joe Biden's bombshell revives Elon Musk's ambitions to make X the world's digital town square.
- Secret Service director admits Trump shooting was agency's 'most significant failure' in decades.
- The appeal of being an influencer is so strong that half of US adults would quit their jobs if they could make a living from social media.
- 'Botshit' is an example of how AI is making customer service worse.
- The race is already on to be Kamala Harris' VP.
- Mark Zuckerberg posted this pic in February. Someone just spotted an interesting object in the background.
- The cofounder of MoviePass is raising $20 million from Amazon and Alphabet for a longevity-focused venture studio.
- I'm a tech startup founder. We weed out job applications written with ChatGPT by hiding a prompt just for AI in our listings.
- The one thing Kamala Harris must not do is embrace the memes.
- Twitter's not back. But it's not going anywhere, either. Ask Ezra Klein.
What's happening today
- Tesla, Alphabet, Capital One, Visa, Coca-Cola, General Motors, and other companies are reporting.
The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Annie Smith, associate producer, in London. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.