David Tepper
David Tepper founded Appaloosa Management in 1993 after being passed over for a partnership at Goldman Sachs, where he had been head of high-yield trading. He built Appaloosa into one of the most successful hedge funds in history, with a specialty in distressed debt and event-driven situations. The fund is known for extraordinary performance in crisis periods, when Tepper's ability to assess credit risk and corporate recovery scenarios gives him a decisive edge.
Tepper is perhaps best known for his prescient call in 2009 that the US government would not allow major banks to fail, leading to a massive long position in financial stocks that returned over $7B — reportedly the largest single-year hedge fund gain in history at the time. He converted Appaloosa to a family office in 2019, returning outside capital. He also owns the Carolina Panthers NFL franchise, purchased in 2018 for $2.275B.
The key is to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing. The big money is made in the markets when you have a clear thesis and everything lines up.
— David Tepper, Appaloosa Management