The 20 percent club: hedge fund stars of an industry rebound
A group of prominent hedge funds have roared back with market-trouncing returns in 2017, helping the industry score its best performance in at least four years in a surprise rebound for an often maligned pocket of Wall Street.

An elite club of managers rode bull markets and increased dispersion between securities to score profits of at least 20 percent through the end of October, a dramatic improvement from last year for investors such as Larry Robbins, Philippe Laffont, and Chase Coleman, people familiar with individual funds' performance said.

One of the largest returns came from Charlottesville-based investor Jaffray Woodriff, who used short-term stock bets to score a 68.3 percent gain in a key fund of his $4 billion Quantitative Investment Management.

By comparison, the S&P 500 Index was up 15 percent, more than double the benchmark HFRI hedge fund index, which was up 7.23 percent through October, its best annual return since at least 2013.

"We've been seeing significantly improved performance," Darren Wolf, head of hedge fund solutions for the Americas at Aberdeen Asset Management, said.

The last few years have been littered with hedge fund managers who charged steep fees and often promised heady returns only to lose money for investors or close shop entirely. A roaring stock market and the rise of low-cost investment tools, such as index funds, have also hit the industry.