Viking Global Investors

Fronting the offices of Viking Global Investors high above Park Avenue is a solid, 12-foot-wide wall of clear glass. Still, no matter how you position yourself, the inner workings of the hedge fund are invisible. No chance sightings of Andreas Halvorsen, 39, the chisel-featured Norwegian chief investment officer, or one of the other two partners, David Ott, 37, or Brian Olson, 35--the three former Tiger cubs who run the fund.

There's considerable buzz within the industry that Viking, cloaked in secrecy, is one of the hottest funds around. But sources say the most auspicious fact about the $2 billion fund is that it was up 89% last year after fees. That's killer performance in light of 2000's dismal stock market. Viking, a long-short equity fund that primarily invests in the U.S. and Europe, employs a "bottom-up" fundamental stock-picking strategy. It focuses on financials, telecommunications, media, technology, and consumer stocks. The fund's nine analysts meet with some 1,000 companies a year. "Their core strength is that they're fantastic business analysts. They can really determine good companies from bad," says an investor.