By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON, (Reuters) – The 20 most successful hedge funds in the world earned $65.4 billion to their clients in 2021. This is a record-setting achievement as stocks markets soared despite increasing prices and coronavirus infections, according LCH Investments data.

According to LCH Investments (a fund management firm that tracks returns that is part Edmond de Rothschild’s group), the group with the highest success rates earned over a third the $176billion that hedge funds collectively made in 2013.

According to data, top 20 investment firms, including Citadel and TCI Fund Management, earned an average return of 10.5%. They also managed close to one-fifth of $3.6 trillion worth assets. However, their returns were lower than the wider stock market gains.

The 2021 top performers surpassed $63.5 billion and 2019, respectively, which was despite Omicron virus variants in Delta and Omicron as well as fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve might soon need to increase interest rates to combat rising prices.

Rick Sopher of LCH, chairman, stated, “The net profits generated by top 20 managers for investors…were the highest ever.” This surpasses 2020’s gains, which set another record.

The top two performers of 2021 saw a shake-up. TCI Fund Management’s Chris Hohn earned $9.5billion and Ken Griffin’s Citadel received $8.2billion.

Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global was 2020’s top winner. It earned $10.4 Billion in 2020. However, it suffered losses of $1.5 Billion in 2021. Israel Englander’s Millennium also reached the top spot in 2020, posting a $10.2 million gain and a $6.4 Billion gain in 2021.

After a poor year in 2020, Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater hedge fund was able to rebound with an estimated $5.7 billion in gains in 2021.

Third Point by Daniel Loeb, which employs several strategies, including activist investing and broke into the top 20 in 2021, with an increase of $3.3 billion.

Representatives from the hedge funds refused to comment.

While many businesses have made billions, the stock-oriented hedge fund market was largely below the 27% growth in stock markets between 2021 and 2023. Sopher stated that they “generally didn’t fully capture the extraordinary returns available in equity markets”. He also said that their low net exposure and difficult climate for short selling had limited their return potential.