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Dinis Guarda & HedgeThink Unveil The ‘Top 100 Hedge Funds in the World’, Ranked from Regulatory Filings
23 Oct 2026
Millennium Management, Qube Research & Technologies and Capula Investment Management lead a ranking of the ‘Top 100 Hedge Funds in the World’, which together hold $9.64 trillion in gross hedge fund assets.
Dinis Guarda, author, global thought leader, and Creator of Businessabc.net, Citiesabc.com, and HedgeThink.com, published the Top 100 Hedge Funds in the World (2026). The ranking is a free data-led tool that ranks, filters, and compares the world's largest hedge fund managers using public regulatory filings.
“Capital is the most powerful signal in finance, and for too long the biggest pools of it have been measured with surveys and estimates. The HedgeThink Global Hedge Fund Explorer turns regulatory filings into open, searchable intelligence. Anyone, from an institutional allocator to a student in Mumbai or Lisbon, can now see who manages the world's hedge fund capital and how it is changing.” - Dinis Guarda
The ranking draws on filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) up to 30 September 2026. It covers 100 managers across six jurisdictions and eight strategies, and it refreshes automatically as new filings are published. Every manager has its own profile page with assets, growth, strategy, headquarters and disclosed portfolio performance.
How the ranking works: metrics and logic
Managers are ranked by one measure: hedge fund gross assets reported to the SEC on Form ADV. The Explorer shows several other metrics next to it, so readers can judge size, growth and disclosed performance together.
Metric | What it measures | Source |
| Hedge fund assets (gross), the ranking measure | Gross asset value of the manager's private funds classed as hedge funds, including assets funded by borrowing | SEC Form ADV |
| Regulatory AUM | Total regulatory assets under management the adviser reports, across all of its funds and accounts | SEC Form ADV |
| 1Y and 5Y change | Growth in gross hedge fund assets over one and five years, measured filing to filing | SEC Form ADV history |
| 13F return (1Y) | One-year return of the manager's disclosed long U.S. equity portfolio | SEC Form 13F |
| Strategy | Each manager's primary style (Multi-Strategy, Quantitative, Global Macro, Equity Long/Short, Activist, Event Driven, Credit, Relative Value) | Automatic classification from filings and public data |
| Country and founding year | Location of the principal office and year founded | Form ADV, Wikidata, GLEIF |
| HedgeThink Score | Composite score summarising each manager's profile on a 0–100 scale | HedgeThink methodology |
Why gross assets. Gross assets include leverage, so they are larger than the net capital figures quoted in investor surveys. HedgeThink uses them because they are filed under a legal obligation, reported on the same basis by every manager and comparable across firms. They also show how much market exposure each manager actually runs, not only how much investor capital it holds. This explains why leveraged relative-value and multi-manager platforms such as Capula, Symmetry and Brevan Howard rank higher than they would on net AUM.
Why 13F returns are reported carefully. Form 13F covers long positions in U.S.-listed equities only. The 13F return therefore tracks the disclosed portfolio, not a fund's net return to investors, and it is shown only where it is meaningful.
Updates and independence. The ranking is built from SEC filings (Form ADV, Form 13F and Schedule 13D) together with Wikidata and GLEIF entity data. It updates automatically as new filings arrive. HedgeThink is not affiliated with the SEC, and the Explorer is a research tool, not investment advice. The full methodology is at How the ranking works.
"Nearly six of every ten dollars in this ranking are run by multi-strategy platforms or quantitative firms. That is AI and data science reshaping one of the most competitive industries on earth. HedgeThink's mission is to make that transformation transparent.
This is the first release of a living dataset. It updates as new filings arrive, and we will keep adding managers, metrics and markets. Our aim is to build the world's most open reference for the hedge fund and alternative investment industry, as part of HedgeThink's wider commitment to AI-driven, verifiable business intelligence." - Dinis Guarda
Why this ranking matters now
Hedge funds hold more capital and more market influence than at any point in the industry's history, but most rankings still rely on self-reported surveys. HedgeThink's ranking uses filed data instead, which matters for four reasons.
- Concentration. The ten largest managers hold $4.14 trillion, or 43% of the top 100's gross assets. Investors, allocators and policymakers need to see where that capital sits.
- Leverage. Regulators worldwide are watching leverage in hedge funds, especially in Treasury basis and relative-value trades. Gross assets show market exposure that net AUM does not.
- The rise of platforms and quants. Multi-strategy platforms hold $3.76 trillion (39%) of the top 100's gross assets and quantitative managers another $1.82 trillion (19%). The ranking shows how fast data- and AI-driven investing is changing the industry.
- Transparency. Allocators, journalists, students and fintech founders get a free, verifiable reference that updates with every new filing, instead of a figure they cannot check.
Inside the Global Hedge Fund Explorer
The Explorer is free to use and needs no registration. Readers can:
- Search and filter all 100 managers by strategy, country, asset size, 13F return and founding decade.
- Re-sort the ranking by assets, one-year change, 13F return, HedgeThink Score or founding year.
- Open a profile for every manager, for example Millennium Management or Bridgewater Associates.
- Compare managers side by side with the comparison tool.
- Browse focused rankings by strategy (multi-strategy, quant, global macro, activist, credit) and by country (United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong).
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Pallavi Singal
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Pallavi Singal is the Vice President of Content at ztudium, where she leads innovative content strategies and oversees the development of high-impact editorial initiatives. With a strong background in digital media and a passion for storytelling, Pallavi plays a pivotal role in scaling the content operations for ztudium's platforms, including Businessabc, Citiesabc, and IntelligentHQ, Wisdomia.ai, MStores, and many others. Her expertise spans content creation, SEO, and digital marketing, driving engagement and growth across multiple channels. Pallavi's work is characterised by a keen insight into emerging trends in business, technologies like AI, blockchain, metaverse and others, and society, making her a trusted voice in the industry.
