More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite

by Sebastian Mallaby

Tiger’s roster of investors was crammed with captains of industry and finance, and Robertson never hesitated to call on them for insights. His letters to his partners frequently encouraged them to call in ideas, “or, particularly in the case of ladies, intuition.” In the early 1980s Tiger tripled its money in a stock called Mentor, which a Tiger investor had recommended. In the early 1990s the fund’s best stock picks included General Instrument Corporation and Equitable Life Insurance; in both cases Tiger friends who were connected to those firms had urged Robertson to buy them. Around the same time, Robertson began to buy stock in Citicorp, mainly because the bank seemed poised to recover strongly after clearing out its real-estate losses, but also because a Tiger friend was willing to vouch for John Reid, Citi’s chief executive. Robertson was not engaging in insider trading: His contacts were offering broad guidance, not secrets on upcoming earnings announcements that could have an immediate impact on stocks. But he was consciously building his network and cashing in on it brilliantly.