One of the highest-leverage things you can do as a self-directed investor is study how the best allocators in the world actually position their capital, not what some random pundit decides to shill on Bloomberg or CNBC that day only to contradict themselves the next day. When you read through a 13F you can be confident that these investors, who are often handling billions, are literally putting their money where their mouths are. And we have the published performance data to show who's done it well.
Below is my running list of funds and managers I actively track. Some are deep value. Some are quality compounders. Some run concentrated books with massive conviction. The common thread is that each of these investors has a clearly articulated philosophy, a track record worth respecting, and portfolio construction decisions you can actually learn from.
Concentration and Conviction
Li Lu (Himalaya Capital Management) — Charlie Munger's pick to manage his family money. That alone tells you everything. Runs a hyper-concentrated book with enormous position sizes and almost zero turnover.
Bill Ackman (Pershing Square Capital Management) — Love him or hate him, Ackman runs a concentrated, high-conviction portfolio and isn't afraid to take public activist positions. His COVID hedge in 2020 was one of the greatest single trades in hedge fund history.
Norbert Lou (Punch Card Capital) — The fund name says it all. Modeled after Buffett's "20-slot punch card" mental model. Extreme concentration, long holding periods, and a bias toward businesses with durable advantages.
Clifford Sosin (CAS Investment Partners) — One of the most concentrated public portfolios you'll find. Sosin takes huge swings on a tiny number of high-conviction ideas and holds them for years.
Rob Vinall (RV Capital AG) — European-based but globally invested. Runs a very focused book with deep fundamental work behind each position. Quiet operator, strong results.
Quality Compounders
Chuck Akre (Akre Capital Management) — The "three-legged stool" framework: extraordinary business, talented management, great reinvestment opportunities. Akre's portfolio reads like a masterclass in compounding.
Dev Kantesaria (Valley Forge Capital Management) — A surgeon turned fund manager who runs a concentrated quality portfolio. Obsessed with business durability and capital-light models. One of the most underrated managers on this list.
Francois Rochon (Giverny Capital) — Quietly compounded at exceptional rates for decades out of Montreal. Focuses on owner-operated businesses with high returns on equity and long reinvestment runways.
Terry Smith (Fundsmith LLP) — "Buy good companies. Don't overpay. Do nothing." That's literally his investment philosophy and he executes it with discipline. Low turnover, high quality, global scope.
Pat Dorsey (Dorsey Asset Management) — Wrote the book on economic moats (literally, while at Morningstar). Now runs money with that same framework. If you care about competitive advantages, study his holdings.
Chris Hohn (TCI Fund Management) — Runs one of the largest and most successful activist hedge funds globally. Concentrated positions, long holding periods, and a willingness to engage directly with management and boards.
ValueAct Capital Management (Portfolio) — Takes significant stakes and works collaboratively with management teams to unlock value. Known for a constructive rather than combative approach, with a quality bias in the businesses they target.
Polen Capital Management (Portfolio) — Institutional quality-growth manager. Concentrated portfolio of businesses with high and sustainable returns on capital. Steady hand, no drama.
AltaRock Partners (Portfolio) — Flies under the radar. Quality-focused, concentrated, and patient. Worth tracking if you run a similar compounding-oriented approach.
Triple Frond Partners (Charles F. Pollnow / Stuart McLaughlin) — Another quiet compounder shop. Concentrated, quality-biased, and not chasing headlines. Exactly the kind of portfolio you want to reverse-engineer.
Deep Value
Seth Klarman (Baupost Group) — The godfather of modern value investing after Buffett. Wrote "Margin of Safety," which now sells for hundreds of dollars used. Baupost is notoriously patient and willing to hold cash when nothing meets the bar.
David Tepper (Appaloosa Management) — Known for making massive, contrarian bets during periods of market distress. His 2009 bank trade is legendary. Blends macro awareness with deep fundamental analysis.
Joel Greenblatt (Gotham Asset Management) — Created the "Magic Formula" and has spent decades teaching value investing at Columbia. Gotham's portfolio blends systematic value screening with active management.
Guy Spier (Aquamarine Capital) — Paid $650K to have lunch with Buffett and considers it the best investment he ever made. Runs a Buffett-style portfolio from Zurich with a long-term, low-turnover approach.
Phil Town (Rule One Partners) — "Rule #1: Don't lose money." Follows a concentrated value approach rooted in Buffett and Munger's principles. Targets wonderful companies at attractive prices.
Growth and Tech-Forward
Stanley Druckenmiller (Duquesne Family Office) — Arguably the greatest macro investor alive. Now runs his own family office after decades at Soros. Druckenmiller's portfolio has leaned increasingly into technology and growth, and he moves fast when he sees something.
Chase Coleman (Tiger Global Management) — Julian Robertson protégé and one of the most successful growth investors of his generation. Tiger Global's public book skews heavily toward technology and disruptive platforms.
Philippe Laffont (Coatue Management) — Another Tiger cub running a tech-heavy, data-driven portfolio. Coatue bridges public and private markets and tends to be early on technology inflection points.
Alex Sacerdote (Whale Rock Capital Management) — Growth-oriented with a strong technology tilt. Runs a concentrated book and has delivered strong returns by identifying secular winners early.
Gavin Baker (Atreides Management) — Former Fidelity star who launched his own fund. Sharp on technology and growth trends with a willingness to take outsized positions when conviction is high.
Josh Resnick (Jericho Capital Asset Management) — Technology-focused with an eye toward enterprise software and digital infrastructure. Concentrated and conviction-driven.
Glen Kacher (Light Street Capital Management) — Growth and technology-focused manager. Runs a relatively concentrated book and has been active in AI and cloud infrastructure themes.
Spencer Waxman (Shannon River Fund Management) — Media, telecom, and technology specialist. Focused portfolio with deep sector expertise.
David Greenspan (Slate Path Capital) — Growth-oriented with positions across technology, healthcare, and consumer sectors. Active portfolio management with meaningful position sizing.
Under-the-Radar and Worth Digging Into
Josh Tarasoff (Greenlea Lane Capital) — Small, concentrated fund with a quality-compounding philosophy. Tarasoff thinks deeply about business durability and capital allocation. Worth studying if you run a concentrated personal portfolio.
Tom Hayes (Great Hill Capital) — Smaller operation that doesn't get much attention. Sometimes the best ideas come from managers who aren't running billions.
Skye Global Management (Portfolio) — Low-profile fund with a growth orientation. Worth periodic check-ins to see what's catching their attention.
Greenoaks Capital Partners (Portfolio) — Growth-focused with significant private market exposure alongside their public holdings. Tracks well with technology and platform-driven business models.
Patrick Hargreaves (AKO Capital) — European quality-growth manager with a global mandate. Concentrated and research-intensive. A good portfolio to study if you lean toward international quality names.
How I Use This List
While the list above may contain some of the most successful investors of all time, I don't copy trades. Copy trading is a losing game for a handful of reasons, starting with the fact that 13F filings are delayed by 45 days and only show long equity positions. We never know if any of these investors is pairing their 45% long GOOGL position with a 45% short GOOG that we just don't see on the 13F, one that they entered into 1 day after their last filing obligation and closed out yesterday. While it may be enticing to just copy every trade this group makes, keep in mind you're always late and looking at only a partial snapshot.
What I do instead is use these portfolios as an idea generation funnel. When multiple high-quality managers with different frameworks converge on the same name, that's a signal worth investigating. It doesn't replace doing your own work. It tells you where to look.
The other thing worth tracking is position sizing and changes over time. A manager adding to a position during a drawdown tells you something different than one trimming into strength. The conviction signals in the sizing often matter as much as or more than the name itself.
All of the links above point to HedgeFollow, which is one of the 13F filings tracking sites I find to be useful for tracking these portfolio changes at a glance.