TCI and Lone Pine led the list of top-performing hedge funds for last year.

Chris Hohn’s TCI and Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital logged gains of $8.4 billion and $7.3 billion respectively in 2019. However, Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater ($58.5 billion) and Soros F. Management ($43.9 billion) topped the list based on gains from the start date of the hedge funds.

According to Bloomberg, the top 20 hedge funds amassed total, after-fee gains of $59.3 billion in 2019. Since their inception, these same funds have raked in $557.8 billion.

These were their biggest annual gains in at least a decade, as they benefited from bull runs in stocks and bonds.

Bloomberg’s report relied on annual survey data from LCH Investments, a fund of funds. The survey focuses on asset managers earning the most overall profits since inception.

Long shots led the field amongst hedge funds

“Several managers in the top 20 recorded very strong gains in 2019, especially those that were positioned net long equities,” Rick Sopher, chairman of LCH, said in a statement.

TCI, the activist fund with a long bias, returned a whopping 41% in 2019. It outstripped even the S&P 500, which gained 31.5%. That was a return that most active managers were unable to match.

Ray Dalio’s famed Bridgewater made just 0.6% last year, following the shock loss in its flagship fund – the first since 2000.

Top 5 since inception ($-B)

Top 5 in 2019 ($-B)

LCH also commenced a new statistic – philanthropy. They made combined donations or commitments of $62.5bn, which was about 45% of the total performance fees earned since inception.

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