The top 25 hedge fund managers reaped $11.62 billion in compensation in 2014, according to an annual ranking by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. Mr. Griffin started by trading convertible bonds out of his dormitory at Harvard. His firm, Citadel, posted returns of 18 percent to investors in its flagship Kensington and Wellington funds. At Renaissance, the best performing equities fund was up 14.5 percent and its institutional futures fund gained 7.4 percent. Mr. Simons' wealth, however, is tied up in the firm’s secretive Medallion fund, which manages only employees’ money and has earned average annual returns of more than 30 percent over two decades. Mr. Dalio runs the world’s biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, with more than $170 billion in assets under management. Bridgewater started the year strong, with well-placed bets on interest rates in Europe and the United States, but momentum slowed in the second half of the year. He made 3.6 percent and 8.7 percent in his two main Pure Alpha funds. Mr. Ackman is known for making large and concentrated bets, and for being outspoken about them. His Pershing Square Capital funds gained 36 percent and 40 percent, the best returns in the 2014 ranking. Mr. Englander's firm, Millennium, made returns of 12 percent in 2014. Based in New York, Millennium uses a platform model to invest with 170 individual managers who each use their own trading strategies. Mr. Englander does not charge a management fee. Instead, investors share the costs of running the firm.