How many employees do the largest hedge funds have?

I've heard that SAC has 900 employees which I find surprising considering the fact that their AUM is considerably lower than many of the other top hedge funds like Bridgewater, Och-Ziff, Farallon, etc. I can't imagine many hedge-funds have more than 1000 employees but maybe I'm completely wrong.

I know most PE firms don't have nearly this many employees unless you consider a group like Blackstone which does a lot more than just PE.

Anyone have any insight?

 

Keep in mind that larger hedge funds will need a huge support staff to back up the investment professionals. As AUM gets larger, and investments get more exotic, legal, compliance, investor relations, portfolio monitoring, accounting, business development, etc. all have to grow to keep up. That said, 900 employees for SAC does seem very, very large. are you sure that's correct?

 
Best Response
Markov:
Keep in mind that larger hedge funds will need a huge support staff to back up the investment professionals. As AUM gets larger, and investments get more exotic, legal, compliance, investor relations, portfolio monitoring, accounting, business development, etc. all have to grow to keep up. That said, 900 employees for SAC does seem very, very large. are you sure that's correct?

I'm actually not sure that number is correct at all, but I have read it before. Search "SAC Capital 900 employees" on Google and you will see reputable sources like Reuters and the NYT support it (as a new user I cannot post links).

At the same time I've heard/read that other funds with massive AUM's like Paulson & Co, Soros Management, and Icahn Enterprises (which I know is a holding company) only have staff of around 50 or so. I figured that a massive fund like Bridgewater would have the most employees, but I was surprised to hear that SAC "apparently" has so many. I figured most of the top hedge funds like Och-Ziff, Cerberus, Farallon, etc would only have a couple hundred max.

 
Markov:
Keep in mind that larger hedge funds will need a huge support staff to back up the investment professionals. As AUM gets larger, and investments get more exotic, legal, compliance, investor relations, portfolio monitoring, accounting, business development, etc. all have to grow to keep up. That said, 900 employees for SAC does seem very, very large. are you sure that's correct?

I'm actually not sure that number is correct at all, but I have read it before. Search "SAC Capital 900 employees" on Google and you will see reputable sources like Reuters and the NYT support it (as a new user I cannot post links).

At the same time I've heard/read that other funds with massive AUM's like Paulson & Co, Soros Management, and Icahn Enterprises (which I know is a holding company) only have staff of around 50 or so. I figured that a massive fund like Bridgewater would have the most employees, but I was surprised to hear that SAC "apparently" has so many. I figured most of the top hedge funds like Och-Ziff, Cerberus, Farallon, etc would only have a couple hundred max.

 
prideandtrue:
Markov:
Keep in mind that larger hedge funds will need a huge support staff to back up the investment professionals. As AUM gets larger, and investments get more exotic, legal, compliance, investor relations, portfolio monitoring, accounting, business development, etc. all have to grow to keep up. That said, 900 employees for SAC does seem very, very large. are you sure that's correct?

I'm actually not sure that number is correct at all, but I have read it before. Search "SAC Capital 900 employees" on Google and you will see reputable sources like Reuters and the NYT support it (as a new user I cannot post links).

At the same time I've heard/read that other funds with massive AUM's like Paulson & Co, Soros Management, and Icahn Enterprises (which I know is a holding company) only have staff of around 50 or so. I figured that a massive fund like Bridgewater would have the most employees, but I was surprised to hear that SAC "apparently" has so many. I figured most of the top hedge funds like Och-Ziff, Cerberus, Farallon, etc would only have a couple hundred max.

A lot of it depends on the structure. Many of the largest funds are set up as multi-manager silos (for example SAC and Millenium) where they are effectively dozens (or more) smaller hedge fund teams sharing a back-office platform.

Berkshire and Icahn also have a lot of "off-balance sheet" employees so to speak. Berkshire has employees in various subs/JVs and at its portfolio companies; Icahn has employees at his hedge funds.

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she_monkey:
well keep in mind SAC's aum is decreasing.......

What were total redemptions? $600mm on $14bn?? Steve made $1.5bn last year and the fund was up as awhole so I'm guessing AUM is actually up year over year.

In terms of the huge number of employees, they charge 3 and 50 and the upside on close to 10bn of internal money is way greater than 10bn of client money (probably worth 3x money feeing 2/20)

 

Yeah but at the same time SAC is unique in the sense that about 60% of the $14 billion they manage is Steve Cohen or his staffs own money. I would think that this would make them have a smaller staff, since its primarily their own money.

I'm just surprised that top hedge funds like Paulson and Soros can have +/-50 employees with roughly $25-30 billion of AUM while SAC would need 800+ employees to deal with $14 billion.

On a side note I was always surprised that top holding companies like Berkshire Hathaway and Icahn Enterprises can manage so much with only 20-40 employees.

 

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