http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20100910/bs_ft/981a7710bcff11df954b00144feab49a "According to new research, the 80-year-old Mr Soros has produced $32bn for his customers since setting up in 1973, an average of over $900m a year. Put another way, Mr Soros and his team of 300 have made their investors more than the total earnings of Apple, which employs 34,300, or Alcoa, one of America's 30 largest manufacturers. When it comes to the hedge fund mantra of "absolute returns", Mr Soros is leader of the pack. But the top 10 most successful managers have between them generated almost $154bn since they were founded, with even the number 10 - Eddie Lampert's ESL - making more than British Airways earned over the same period." I wonder how much of this wealth transfer (from investors to hedge fund managers/investors) is from foreign investors and represents a item in the current account. So when people say "these investment managers don't produce any value" that's not exactly right insofar as they transfer wealth from the Mrs. Watanabe to the US.
Another interesting point made in the article is that average performance of the fund is different from average performance of an investor. A fund that returns 50%/year for five years with small assets and then loses 50% with substantially more assets can generate a negative return per dollar invested. This is what plenty of mutual funds do to boost returns.