Actually, I know a few hedge fund managers in Singapore who earned hundreds of millions of dollars just last year. Some of them are even Singaporeans and Malaysians, not foreigners. I also know more excellent fund managers who are closing their funds for good because they failed. In fact, one of them closed up in 2008 and only just went back to his old bulge bracket firm because it takes 5 years to wind down some hedge funds!

In my day, I met some of the super managers like Sanjay Motwani, Stephen Mandel, Julian Robertson and even the now infamous Raj Rajaratnam, who even tried to recruit me at some point. They are extraordinarily smart people, often thinking two steps ahead of where you are and you have to struggle to keep up with them. Basically, it takes an extraordinary mind to make billions. Its not just luck.

Global Markets in Singapore also does pretty well. One fixed income chap I know drives a $1.5m Murcie LP640 and he just smokes in it and trashes it - treats it like a Hyundai. Just hang around the One Raffles Quay carpark in the morning and you will see it.