The Heirs to the Throne
A lot of big names have been popping up on the news lately;
Soros tried to legalize it, Druckenmiller’s Duquesne disciples are launching their own massive fund, PTJ’s gone contrarian by selling farmland, and Julian Robertson stuck it to fatties across America.
These guys, along with Kravis, Milken, Buffett, Icahn, and the rest of the BSD’s are undoubtedly the Kings of finance. We’ve read about them in books, we see them in the papers, we’ve lusted over the things they’ve done, and we got into this hoping to do the same as well.
But who are their heir apparents today?
Most of these guys cut their teeth in the 80’s, some even as far back as the 70’s, so we have at the very least a whole generation of ambitious bastards between us and them; hungry, driven, and out staking their claim for the throne.
So who are they? Top of my head there’s:
Carl Icahn – Warren Lichtenstein / Daniel Loeb
Warren Buffett – Eddie Lampert
Seth Klarman – David Einhorn?
The rest however is a little harder to assess; the hedge fund and PE industry has ballooned from a few players with their own little kingdoms to thousands, each vying for a key to the castle.
I’ll leave this with you guys, who do you think are the heirs to the thrones?
Who will be the next PTJ, Julian Robertson, or Henry Kravis?
Enjoy your Saturday people, have a good one.
i often wonder what it takes to get to that level. how much is skill vs. luck. how much is what you know vs. who you know. and, whatever it is that you need to know, what's the best/quickest way to learn it?
My guess is that it's a little bit of everything; Louis Bacon for example started out as a broker and was lucky enough to get Tudor and Soros' accounts. Aside from learning their methods, he was an awesome trader on his own and made quite a name for himself before launching Moore.
Skill + Luck + What you know + Who you know
Tepper, Fink, Paulson, Griffin and Arnold gots to be somewhere on that list.
me
I would like to hope someone that one posted here
gekko21 the next soros?
Right Time and Right Place.
Figure that out and you have figured out the game.
Skill + Luck + What you know + Who you know
I dont think people give "luck" enough love.... I got my first internship at ML because I was getting my haircut next to the head of the office. Timing and luck can really push you over the top
Luck can play a big role in getting a junior role on a trading desk. I am not sure it can get you a track record that spans multiple decades.
todd combs
I'd disagree with Fink. You are right on with Seth Klarman but not as compared to David Einhorn. Dan Loeb is the man and don't forget about Bill Ackman.
It would be awesome if someone came back to this forum a few years from now and started a "Thanks WSO!!" thread where he points to one of the top spots on the Absolute Return survey (or whatever they'll have by then).
I think you can make a case for Alan Howard being the heir apparent for the PTJ/Bacon/Kovner bunch. Different background but at top-flight macro shop.
Adipisci explicabo cum ipsa atque id perspiciatis non reprehenderit. Molestiae nesciunt enim ex et quia eligendi sed itaque. Enim veniam neque tempore sapiente sed.
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