A.W. Jones

A.W. Jones created the first hedge fund structure in 1949 by combining long equity positions with short sales and leverage, and introducing a 20% performance-based incentive fee. This framework — targeting absolute returns with reduced market correlation — became the industry standard. Every modern hedge fund's legal structure, fee model, and portfolio construction logic descends from Jones's original partnership.

Jones took long positions in stocks he believed were undervalued and short positions in stocks he considered overvalued, then applied leverage to the net exposure. The goal was to generate returns from stock selection while hedging out broader market risk. This "long/short equity" approach was designed to profit irrespective of market direction, a concept that was entirely novel in 1949.

According to Carol Loomis's 1966 Fortune profile, A.W. Jones had outperformed every mutual fund over the prior five years and every mutual fund over the prior ten years. The fund returned approximately 670% over the ten-year period compared to 358% for the best-performing mutual fund, per Fortune's reporting at the time.

The original A.W. Jones partnership did not survive in its original form; the firm eventually converted to a different structure and later ceased active management. However, the investment vehicle and strategy framework Jones pioneered — long/short equity with incentive fees — remains the dominant architecture of the global hedge fund industry, managing trillions in assets.

The 1966 Fortune article exposed Wall Street to Jones's results, sparking explosive growth from roughly 20 hedge funds to over 140 within two years. The term "hedged fund" entered the financial vocabulary through that profile. Subsequent generations of managers — from George Soros to Julian Robertson — built directly on Jones's structural blueprint.