Ray Dalio made $50 billion for his clients, topping list of biggest hedge fund money-makers ever

Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates has the biggest cumulative net profit for a hedge fund firm ever, according to data from LCH Investments.

Dalio’s firm led the list with a nearly $50 billion gain for its investors since inception through 2017, adding a $300 million profit in 2017 despite mediocre percentage returns. Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha fund returned 1.2 percent last year, according to data from Absolute Return.

Bridgewater is the world’s largest hedge fund, managing about $160 billion, according to its website. Dalio started the firm in 1975 out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. He is now worth an estimated $17 billion, according to Forbes.

Second on the list is famed-speculator George Soros, with nearly $44 billion in total gains and a $2.1 billion profit last year. Soros is best known for making $1 billion betting against the British pound in 1992. He currently only manages money for himself, his family and his various foundations.

Stock picker Steve Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital had the largest gain of any hedge fund firm in 2017, at $5 billion, and is now ranked fourth overall.

LCH Investments told Institutional Investor it was not able to get audited information on Renaissance Technologies’ performance for that firm’s ranking.