The cubs are mostly stock pickers in Robertson’s mold, relying on research to identify companies they deem inexpensive based on financial yardsticks such as earnings growth, and to bet against stocks they think are poised to fall. They pay special attention to the quality of company management.

“The true success of Robertson and Tiger extends beyond the stellar performance numbers and mind-boggling assets under management,” Daniel A. Strachman wrote in “Julian Robertson: A Tiger in the Land of Bulls and Bears,” his 2004 book. “Ultimately, the success of the firm can be measured in the legacy of his cubs.”

Archegos Blowup
One of Robertson’s Tiger Cub disciples triggered one of modern capitalism’s biggest blowups.

Bill Hwang left Robertson’s firm to form Tiger Asia Management, which pleaded guilty to insider trading on Chinese bank stocks in 2012, agreeing to criminal and civil settlements of more than $60 million. Hwang then turned to managing his own money, through a family office he called Archegos Capital Management. That firm lost about $20 billion in two days in March 2021, rocking global finance and costing global banks billions in losses.

Unlike Robertson, Hwang had flown under the radar, secretly making one of Wall Street’s biggest fortunes before losing it so publicly.

“I’m just very sad about it,” Robertson said in an interview shortly after the Archegos blowup. “I’m a great fan of Bill, and it could probably happen to anyone. But I’m sorry it happened to Bill.”

Julian Hart Robertson Jr. was born on June 25, 1932, in Salisbury, North Carolina. His father, Julian Hart Robertson, was a businessman in the textile industry. His mother was the former Blanche Spencer.

Kidder Peabody
He earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before spending two years in the US Navy. Robertson joined Kidder Peabody & Co. in 1957, rising through the ranks to eventually become chief executive officer of Webster Management Corp., Kidder Peabody’s asset-management arm, in 1974.

Robertson “was like a sponge, constantly soaking up as much information as he could from his colleagues, peers and competitors,” Strachman wrote. “His skill was learning from others and taking the knowledge and turning it into profits for the firm, his colleagues, his clients and, of course, himself.”

One of those he learned from directly, according to Strachman, was Alfred Winslow Jones, who was the father-in-law of a colleague. The founder of A.W. Jones & Co., Jones is regarded as the intellectual father of the hedge (or “hedged”) fund, meaning one that placed bets on the market falling as well as rising.