Who Runs the Market? The High Stakes Players
/Approximately $7.5 trillion in assets are controlled by 24 private financial entities. This list does not include central banks and governments. These numbers are subject to differences in estimations and definitions of AUM but it provides a nice ball park figure to let you know the influence these players have on the market.
Two Lists:
| Primary Dealers | AUM in Billions |
| Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. | Not disclosed |
| Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated | $1,800.0 |
| Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. | $1,245.6 |
| Goldman, Sachs & Co. | $748.1 |
| BNP Paribas Securities Corp. | $676.9 |
| UBS Securities LLC. | $632.0 |
| Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC | $439.8 |
| HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. | $417.0 |
| Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC | $341.0 |
| RBC Capital Markets, LLC | $280.0 |
| Mizuho Securities USA Inc. | $133.9 |
| SG Americas Securities, LLC | $115.8 |
| Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency | $115.0 |
| Citigroup Global Markets Inc. | $31.7 |
| J.P. Morgan Securities LLC | $26.5 |
| Nomura Securities International, Inc. | $24.8 |
| RBS Securities Inc. | $20.0 |
| Barclays Capital Inc. | $16.9 |
| BMO Capital Markets Corp. | $15.5 |
| Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. | $12.6 |
| Jefferies LLC | $2.0 |
| Total | $7,095.1 |
| Hedge Funds | AUM in Billions |
| Bridgewater Associates | $77.6 |
| Man Group | $64.5 |
| JPMorgan Asset Management | $46.6 |
| Brevan Howard Asset Management | $36.6 |
| Och-Ziff Capital Management Group | $28.5 |
| Paulson & Co. | $28.0 |
| BlackRock Advisors | $27.7 |
| Winton Capital Management | $27.0 |
| Highbridge Capital Management | $26.1 |
| BlueCrest Capital Management | $25.0 |
| Baupost Group | $23.0 |
| Cerberus Capital Management | $23.0 |
| D.E. Shaw & Co. | $23.0 |
| Angelo Gordon Co. | $22.0 |
| AQR Capital Management | $20.5 |
| Total | $499.1 |
When these behemoths have to move, much like an earthquake in the middle of the ocean, to those miles and miles away it goes unnoticed; but the reverberations become Tsunami's that obliterate unprepared portfolios. An investor must be vigilant, always looking out for tremors.
A final perspective. 183 countries reported 2011 GDP$USD figures to the World Bank. The total assets of these 24 private entities is larger than the GDP of 150 of those reporting countries combined.
