Bruce Kovner

Bruce Kovner studied political economy at Harvard University — leaving before completing his PhD — and had careers as a political campaign manager, harpsichord player, and cab driver before encountering Michael Marcus at Commodities Corporation in the late 1970s. Marcus mentored Kovner in trading, and Kovner turned a $3,000 loan from his credit card into over $45,000 trading soybean futures in his first significant trade. He worked at Commodities Corporation before founding Caxton Associates in 1983. Caxton became one of the most consistently profitable hedge funds in history, generating an estimated $14 billion for investors over its four decades of operation. Kovner's approach was discretionary global macro — making large directional bets on currencies, interest rates, commodities, and equities based on macroeconomic analysis, with strict risk management. He was frequently ranked as the world's top-performing fund manager in studies of long-term hedge fund returns. He stepped back from day-to-day trading and eventually retired from Caxton around 2011, turning management over to colleagues. Kovner is also a significant arts philanthropist: he has donated tens of millions of dollars to the Juilliard School, where he served as chairman for many years, and to other music and cultural institutions. He was featured in Jack Schwager's original "Market Wizards" (1989) in an interview that revealed his trading philosophy.