the latest report shows the 10 highest paid hedge fund managers last year earned about 0.5 to 1.5 billion US $ each. some old pros are still there: tudor jones, george soros, bruce kovner
they use different approaches: math models, macro analysis, quantitative methods, or technical analysis. no single best method. to each whatever suits and works for him best. some holds math degree and develops math models for trading. some, like kovner, is a political science phd and views financial world in a totally different way
their annualized multi year investment returns are around 20 to 25%, not bad for fund size of a few billion $
with profit sharing scheme, own money in the funds, and other income, they're able to pocket an average of 1 billion $ each
full-time traders with small capital can hardly get by with yearly investment return of 25%. they need to to do much better