Meet the Rising Stars on Wall Street shaking up investing, trading and dealmaking

Adam Wyden, 33, ADW Capital

Adam Wyden.Business Insider

Wyden, 33, runs his own fund, ADW Capital, which manages a little over $100 million.

After fees, Wyden’s fund is up 47.5% this year through August. Its best-performing year was the year it launched, in 2011, with a 91% gain. Annualized, the fund has returned about 31% a year.

Wyden launched ADW when he was 26. He makes bets on high conviction, highly concentrated stocks, with a focus on small- and large-cap companies.

“Most tend to be Joel Greenblatt-type special situations, orphaned by the market because they’re too small, or they’ve just been spun off, or they’ve just been reorganized, restructured or refinanced,” Wyden told industry magazine Value Investor Insight. “Management is key – I’m looking for entrepreneurs with fire in their bellies, a lot of skin in the game and a demonstrated track record of success.”

He was introduced to the stock market by his grandmother, who followed a Peter Lynch-style of investing, and began managing his own account in high school.

He holds a bachelor’s in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia Business School.