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In April, with many of his funds down as much as 30%, famed hedge fund manager George Soros announced he would abandon his high-risk strategies. The result, he admitted, would be the loss of much of the $14 billion he managed.
Suddenly, most of the 200 traders, analysts and fund managers who had worked for the world's most prestigious hedge funds found themselves without jobs.
Less than six month later, though, the ex-Soros fund managers are finding that they are the hedge fund industry's hottest commodities.
Two of the highest-profile fund managers who have left Soros soon will be running their own billiondollar funds. Stanley Druckenmiller, who ran Soros' flagship $8.2 billion Quantum Fund, is returning to the fund company he founded in the 1980s, Duquesne Capital, which is now based in Manhattan and manages about $3 billion.
Scott Bessent, who had managed money at Soros for the past 10 years, has already attracted more than $1 billion for two funds he created at his new firm, Bessent Capital. He had hoped to reach that amount by Oct. 1.
In addition, Carlson Levitt, another top Soros fund manager, took a position at Pequot Capital Management, one of the nation's largest hedge-fund managers, and Diane Hakala signed on as a managing director with Robertson Stephens Asset Management. Both are said to be making more than $1 million annually.
"The end of Soros was certainly a sad milestone for many people," says James...