9 of 40
BACKNEXT
9. John Arnold
John Arnold
Founder, Centaurus Advisors
Age: 35
Marital status: Married
Highest Education: Bachelor's degree

The baby-faced billionaire started as a numbers whiz on the natural-gas desk at Enron, emerged from that disaster to start his own fund in 2002 at age 28, and last year turned in the third-best hedge fund performance, after John Paulson and James Simons, who is retiring.

Since starting his fund, Arnold has returned at least 80% every year -- including reported gains of over 200% in 2007, when he took the short side of Amaranth's disastrous bet on natural gas.

Next big thing: He's spending $100 million to build new natural-gas storage caverns, making him a key middleman in the energy economy.

NEXT: Marc Andreessen

Last updated March 26 2010: 10:26 AM ET
Email | Print | Share  |  RSS
 
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
Note: To be eligible for Fortune's 40 under 40, candidates had to be 39 or younger on Nov. 1, 2009.
List compiled by Alyssa Abkowitz, Maha Atal, Katie Benner, Scott Cendrowski, Lawrence Delevigne, Telis Demos, Jessi Hempel, Suzanne Kapner, Mina Kimes, Beth Kowitt, Jessica Shambora, Richard Siklos, Kim Thai, Christopher Tkaczyk and Jia Lynn Yang. Research by Marilyn Adamo and Doris Burke.
40 under 40
20 highest paid
20 highest paid
Which young executives at public companies raked it in - and how much did they earn? More
They're hiring!
They're hiring!
These stars on our list have great jobs to fill. What are they looking for and how can you impress them? More
'My biggest mistake'
'My biggest mistake'
The folks on our list may be remarkable, but they're not perfect. Here are the decisions they most regret in their careers. More
Contact Us Closed Captioning Manage Cookies+ Site Map

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.