Kenneth C. Griffin: Citadel Investment Group

While still at Harvard University, he started two funds from his dorm room, and in between classes he would make trades. He actually installed a satellite link to his dorm to acquire real-time market data. After graduating with a degree in economics, he attracted the attention of an investor named Frank C. Meyer, the founder of Glenwood Capital. Meyer was amazed at Griffin’s success and rate of return on his investments and Meyer provided a relatively small investment of $1 million for Griffin to invest. Griffin exceeded Meyer’s expectations, and as word of his great performance spread, investors were persuaded to back Griffin. The Citadel Investment Group was officially founded on Nov. 1, 1990 with $4.2 million. The name “Citadel” was chosen to present the image of strength in times of volatility.

With Citadel quickly growing, it started to perform well. Huge rewards followed for the investors and Griffin attributed this to his exceptional investment skills. Especially, annual performance has been greater than 20 percent since 1998. Griffin sought to utilize his own quantitative talents within Citadel. The firm has attracted advanced computer technology, mathematicians, physicists, engineers, investment analysts, and the company expects a high level of confidentiality.

In 2006, after it became known that Citadel Investment Group would be the first hedge fund to issue publicly traded debt bonds, the Financial Times speculated that Kenneth Griffin may soon be “the most feared man on Wall Street”

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