AHMET Okumus knew that he wanted to be a money manager the moment he made his first trade at Istanbul's new stock exchange in 1987 – when he was 17. “I would cut classes to go hang out in the exchange and watch the trading,” says Okumus with a twinkle in his eye. “And then I'd go back to school to play sports.”
Okumus, now 33, isn't playing anymore. As the lead fund manager at his company, Okumus Capital in New York, he spends most of his time directing strategy on the three hedge funds the company sells, all of which have been outperforming their benchmarks and peer groups for most of their existence.
