It’s very similar to the early days of long-only investment, when pension funds tended to `buy IBM,’ the household names among money managers. Right now, a number of first-time direct hedge fund investors are buying these name-brand hedge funds, for the perceived safety.

—Donald A. Steinbrugge, managing partner of hedge fund consultant and third-party marketer Agecroft Partners: PI Online

Largest Hedge-Fund Managers
(Ranked by assets as of Dec. 31, 2009)

Firm                        Assets (billions)
JPMorgan Chase              $53.5
Bridgewater Associates      $43.6
Paulson & Co.               $32
Brevan Howard               $27
Soros Fund Management       $27
Man Group                   $25.3
Och-Ziff Capital            $23.1
D.E. Shaw*                  $23
BlackRock/Barclays Global   $21
Farallon Capital            $20.7
Baupost Group**             $20
Goldman Sachs Asset         $17.8
BlueCrest Capital           $17.3
Canyon Partners             $17
Landsdowne Partners*        $15
Renaissance Technologies    $15
Fortress Investment         $13.8
Moore Capital               $12.4
Viking Global*              $12.4
Citadel Investment          $12.2
SAC Capital                 $12
GLG Partners                $11.5
Tudor Investment            $10

Pensions & Investments Magazine, via Bloomberg

*As of Jan. 1, 2010
**As of Sept. 30, 2009