text: JPMorgan Hedge Fund Assets Down, But It's Still No. 1 | FINalternatives
  JPMorgan Hedge Fund Assets Down, But It's Still No. 1
  Mar 5 2008 | 9:20am ET
  JPMorgan Chase's hedge funds shed one-fifth of their assets in the second half of last year. Yet the firm remains by far the largest hedge fund manager in the U.S., according to a new survey.
  JPMorgan's hedge fund assets under management dropped to $44.7 billion in the second half, according to Absolute Return magazine. It managed $56.2 billion in July. But it remained almost $9 billion ahead of its nearest competitors: Bridgewater Associates and Farallon Capital Management, both of which manage $36 billion. In the July survey, Bridgewater was the fourth-largest U.S. hedge fund manager with $32.1 billion.
  All told, the 262 largest hedge fund firms in the U.S.—those managing $1 billion or more—boosted their asset base to 34%, rising $407 billion to $1.6 trillion. But three of the top 10 managers actually lost assets, according to the survey, none more so than Goldman Sachs, whose quantitative hedge fund offerings were battered by market volatility last year.
  Goldman fell from second place to seventh, with assets dropping 27% to $29.2 billion. D.E. Shaw also lost assets, slipping from third place to sixth.
  Renaissance Technologies, in spite of highly-publicized difficulties for its largest hedge fund, enjoyed a banner year in terms of asset gathering: Its assets rose 42% to $34 billion, giving it fourth place. Newly publicly-traded Och-Ziff Asset Management did even better, adding 58% to rise to fifth place on the list, with $33.2 billion in assets.
  New to the top ten in the second half are $29 billion Paulson & Co., some of whose funds enjoyed triple-digit performances last on bets against the subprime mortgage and credit markets, and Avenue Capital Group. Tudor Investment Corp. and ESL Investments fell from the list.