Legendary Hedge-Fund Manager Stanley Druckenmiller Is Retiring

George Soros' former protege at Soros Fund Management and billionaire founder of Duquesne Capital, Stanley Druckenmiller, has decided to hang it up. He is closing his hedge fund and retiring. The legendary investor and trader has one of the best long-term track records in the business and has never had a losing year. His returns, however, over the last few years have been disappointing to him, although maybe not necessarily his investors. Druckenmiller said that he was tired of the stress of managing money for others and frustrated by his failure in the past three years to match returns that had averaged 30% annually since 1986. Duquesne oversees approximately $12 billion. Druckenmiller said, “Managing more than $10 billion seems to challenge my long-term standard” for investment performance. "For 30 years I’ve been responsible for managing client money and it’s been a joy, but at some point I need to move on. Thirty years is enough.” He wrote clients, "While the joy of winning for clients is immense, for me the disappointment of each interim drawdown over the years has taken a cumulative toll that I cannot continue to sustain,” Duquesne Capital returned about 11% in 2008, an incredible feat considering the average hedge fund lost 19%, and 10% in 2009, when the average fund gained around 20%. This year, Druckenmiller's investment vehicle is down 5%. “I felt I missed a lot of opportunities in 2008 and 2009, and a huge move in bonds this year," he said. In an

, Druckenmiller relayed an interesting anecdote which seemed to get to the heart of his decision. He said he became serious about the idea of retiring three or four weeks ago when Johann Rupert, a friend and chief executive officer of Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, the world’s largest jewelry maker, invited him to play in October at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, a golf tournament in which both professionals and amateurs compete. Druckenmiller declined, saying he couldn’t leave the office, given the history of volatile markets in October. “Are you crazy?” was Rupert’s reply, according to Druckenmiller. “You’ve been doing this for 30 years. You are a billionaire. You can’t take a couple of days off to play golf?” “I’d had that same thought a hundred times,” Druckenmiller said. You Can't Afford Miss To Out On These Money Making Trading

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