Feeling Down, Druckenmiller Shuts Shop

Noted money manager Stanley Druckenmiller is shutting down his investment advisory firm Duquesne Capital Management, after 30 years.

Druckenmiller, 57, told Bloomberg News 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 percent annually since 1986.

Druckenmiller, who gave more money to charity in 2009 than any other philanthropist, oversees $12 billion at Duquesne Capital Management. He has never had a losing year, according to Bloomberg, but is down 5 percent in 2010.

“Managing more than $10 billion seems to challenge my long-term standard” for investment performance, Druckenmiller told Bloomberg. “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.”

While not a household name, he is known for a particular event: generating $1 billion for George Soros by forcing a devaluation of the British pound in 1992.

Duquesne returned about 11 percent in 2008, when hedge funds on average lost a record 19 percent, and rose about 10 percent in 2009, when the average gain was 20 percent.

Druckenmiller began his financial career in 1977 as a management trainee at Pittsburgh National Bank and subsequently worked at Dreyfus Corp.

Last year, he gave $705 million to a foundation that supports medical research, education, and antipoverty charities.

A Bloomberg interview with Druckenmiller can be found here.

 

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