Traders at leading hedge funds are now pocketing almost a quarter of the profits they generate for investors, according to report by the FT citing a Goldman Sachs report, as multi-manager firms like Citadel and Millennium extend their dominance in the sector.
Goldman found that at the highest-paying firms, traders’ payouts averaged 24.5% of profits in 2025, up from 22% in 2022. The increase reflects intense competition for talent, with packages for star traders exceeding $100 million in some cases.
The report highlights how hedge fund structures have shifted. Where top traders once launched independent funds, the industry is now increasingly dominated by multi-manager platforms, which house hundreds of portfolio managers and analyst teams trading across asset classes. These firms have collectively captured over $425bn in assets, up more than a third since Goldman’s first report on the sector in 2022.
Strong performance and new capital flows drove total managed assets across the 57 hedge funds surveyed to rise 16.1% in 2025, compared with just 4.2% growth for the rest of the industry.
A unique fee model underpins the outsized pay: multi-managers pass expenses—including tech investments, portfolio manager bonuses, and client-related costs—directly to investors rather than the fund, allowing firms to offer massive compensation to top traders while sustaining competitive advantages.
Goldman also noted that the amount of capital managed by individual portfolio managers within multi-manager structures has surged over the past three years, reinforcing the growing scale and influence of these hedge fund giants.
