Bottom Line Up Front: Josh Resnick personally earned $475 million in 2024, landing him 19th on Institutional Investor’s Rich List after his Jericho Capital Special Opportunities fund delivered a 120.6% return. The profits came from three core positions: Netflix (+80%), AppLovin (+400%), and strategic Nvidia positioning, executed through a concentrated portfolio strategy that amplified returns on high-conviction TMT sector bets.
In the hedge fund world, breaking into the top 25 highest earners requires more than luck — it demands precision, timing, and the conviction to make concentrated bets when your analysis points to asymmetric opportunities. Josh Resnick’s 2024 performance offers a masterclass in how specialized sector expertise, disciplined position sizing, and active risk management can generate life-changing returns.
The Setup: From Drawdown to Record Performance
Jericho Capital Asset Management entered 2024 from a position of both opportunity and pressure. The TMT-focused hedge fund, founded by Resnick in 2009, had suffered a brutal 23% decline in 2022 as growth stocks collapsed under rising interest rates. By early 2024, the fund was finally approaching its high-water mark — the critical inflection point where performance fees resume.
The firm operated with approximately $4 billion in total discretionary assets under management at the start of 2024, which grew to over $7.4 billion by March 2025 following the exceptional performance — reflecting significant capital inflows attracted by the fund’s success. It was the more concentrated Special Opportunities fund that delivered the eye-popping 120.6% return, while the flagship posted a still-impressive 59.5% gain.
Key insight: Resnick’s comeback wasn’t built on desperation trades but on patient positioning in his core competency — technology, media, and telecommunications. The 2022 drawdown had created attractive entry points across growth stocks that Jericho understood intimately.
Position #1: The Netflix Conviction Play
Trade Mechanics:
Entry: Q1 2024, 613,000 shares at $372 million value
Position Size: ~10% of US portfolio, immediately became largest long
Thesis: Streaming consolidation + advertising revenue acceleration
Outcome: +80% return in 2024
Netflix represented the type of concentrated conviction that separates elite managers from the pack. Resnick didn’t nibble around the edges — he made streaming his largest position in a single quarter, betting that the market was underestimating Netflix’s advertising potential and global subscriber growth.
The timing proved prescient. Netflix’s ad-supported tier gained significant traction in 2024, while the company’s crackdown on password sharing converted freeloaders into paying subscribers. By Q4 2024, Jericho had increased its stake to 819,000 shares worth over $729 million — a 31% increase from the previous quarter.
Risk Management Element: Despite the conviction, Resnick capped the position at roughly 10% of assets — large enough to matter, disciplined enough to survive if wrong.
Position #2: The AppLovin Moonshot
Trade Mechanics:
Entry: Q1 2024, nearly tripled existing stake
Position Size: 7.2% of portfolio, became #2 holding
Thesis: AI-driven advertising optimization in mobile gaming
Outcome: Stock quadrupled in second half alone
AppLovin exemplifies how specialized knowledge creates edge. The company’s AXON advertising platform uses machine learning to optimize ad targeting in mobile games — a nuanced technology play that required deep sector expertise to evaluate.
Jericho’s conviction proved justified when AppLovin’s Q2 earnings revealed the power of its AI advertising engine. Revenue in the software business jumped 75% to $711 million, accounting for two-thirds of total sales. The market finally understood what Resnick had identified months earlier: AppLovin wasn’t just a gaming company but an AI-powered advertising platform with massive scaling potential.
Catalyst Recognition: The $400 million sale of AppLovin’s gaming business to Tripledot Studios in May removed a distraction and allowed the market to focus on the higher-margin advertising technology. This strategic divestiture increased focus on the core AXON platform that was driving 80%+ gross margins.
Position #3: The Nvidia Trade Management
Trade Mechanics:
Initial Position: Significant stake as #4 holding in Q1
Risk Management: Trimmed 20% in Q1, reduced additional 36% in Q2
Thesis: AI infrastructure essential but momentum stretched
Outcome: Captured gains while managing concentration risk
Perhaps most instructive was how Jericho handled Nvidia — not through buy-and-hold conviction, but through active position management. Rather than riding the AI wave to its peak, Resnick systematically reduced exposure as valuations extended, capturing gains while managing portfolio concentration.
This wasn’t market timing but risk management. With AppLovin and Netflix both delivering explosive returns, maintaining a large Nvidia position would have created dangerous sector concentration in a volatile market. The disciplined trimming allowed Jericho to participate in Nvidia’s +150% first-half run while preserving capital for other opportunities.
The 23-Position Portfolio: Concentration as Strategy
Jericho’s entire US stock portfolio consisted of just 23 positions totaling $5.5 billion — an average position size of nearly $240 million. This wasn’t accidental but strategic. In volatile growth sectors like TMT, diversification often dilutes returns more than it reduces risk.
Portfolio Construction Principles:
Sector Focus: Deep TMT expertise over broad market coverage
Position Sizing: Large enough stakes to matter (5–10% positions common)
Long/Short Balance: 60% of gains from longs, 40% from shorts during the year
Active Management: Continuous position sizing adjustments based on risk/reward
The short book deserves particular attention. While Jericho’s shorts ended 2024 flat, they generated substantial alpha throughout the year — providing both downside protection and profit generation. This isn’t passive hedging but active short-selling in overvalued TMT names, demonstrating the firm’s two-sided expertise.
What Made This Work: Four Critical Factors
1. Specialized Sector Expertise
Resnick’s 15+ year focus on TMT created pattern recognition advantages. Understanding enterprise software economics, streaming business models, and advertising technology isn’t academic — it’s practical edge in evaluating complex businesses that generalist investors struggle to analyze.
2. Conviction Sizing
Average hedge funds hold 50–100 positions. Jericho’s 23-position portfolio amplified returns on correct calls while requiring higher conviction thresholds for each investment. This concentration forced rigorous analysis and created meaningful position sizes.
3. Catalyst-Driven Timing
Each major position aligned with specific business inflection points: Netflix’s advertising tier monetization, AppLovin’s AI advertising breakthrough, and the broader post-2022 growth stock recovery. Timing wasn’t about market sentiment but fundamental business catalysts.
4. Active Risk Management
Unlike passive investors, Jericho continuously adjusted position sizes based on evolving risk/reward dynamics. Trimming Nvidia while adding to AppLovin reflected ongoing portfolio optimization rather than set-and-forget strategies.
Extractable Principles for Investors
For Portfolio Managers:
Concentration Amplifies Edge: If you have genuine expertise, concentrated positions can deliver outsized returns, but conviction must be earned through deep analysis
Sector Specialization: Deep knowledge in specific areas beats shallow diversification across sectors you don’t understand
Dynamic Position Sizing: Successful investing requires continuous portfolio optimization, not static allocation models
For Risk Management:
Conviction vs. Concentration: Large positions require high conviction but shouldn’t eliminate diversification entirely — even concentrated funds need position limits
Hedge Intelligently: Short positions can generate alpha beyond hedging if you understand both sides of your sector
Manage Winners: Taking profits on extended positions preserves gains and manages concentration risk
For Fundamental Analysis:
Catalyst Identification: Look for specific business inflection points, not just cheap valuations or momentum
Technology Evaluation: In growth sectors, understanding the underlying technology and business model creates sustainable investment edge
Revenue Quality: Focus on business segments driving profitable growth, not just top-line expansion
The Broader Context: What This Means for TMT Investing
Jericho’s success reflects broader themes reshaping technology investing:
AI as Practical Infrastructure: AppLovin’s advertising optimization demonstrates AI’s real-world applications beyond headline-grabbing language models — focus on companies using AI to solve specific business problems.
Streaming Maturation: Netflix’s advertising success shows how mature platforms can find new revenue streams through business model innovation, not just subscriber growth.
Sector Rotation Timing: The recovery from 2022’s growth stock collapse rewarded managers who maintained conviction through the drawdown rather than abandoning their expertise areas.
Concentration vs. Diversification: In specialist sectors, concentrated expertise often trumps broad diversification, challenging traditional portfolio theory.
Looking Forward: Sustainability Questions
While Jericho’s 2024 performance was exceptional, several questions remain for investors considering similar strategies:
Scalability and Capital Flows: Jericho’s AUM nearly doubled from $4 billion to $7.4 billion between March 2024 and March 2025, driven by performance-chasing capital inflows. While this validates the strategy’s success, it also creates new challenges — larger position sizes may impact market prices, and maintaining concentrated positions becomes more difficult at scale.
Market Dependency: How much of the success reflected broad TMT sector recovery versus specific stock selection skill?
Replication Risk: As more capital flows to concentrated TMT strategies, will the inefficiencies that created these opportunities diminish?
Succession Planning: Concentrated strategies often depend heavily on individual managers — how sustainable is this approach beyond Resnick’s tenure?
Key Takeaways
Josh Resnick’s $475 million payday wasn’t the result of market timing or lucky stock picks. It emerged from systematic application of sector expertise, disciplined position sizing, and active risk management across a concentrated portfolio designed to amplify returns on high-conviction investments.
The success created its own momentum: Jericho’s assets under management nearly doubled from $4 billion to $7.4 billion in the year following the exceptional performance, as institutional capital flowed toward the proven strategy.
The core lesson for serious investors: edge comes from depth, not breadth. Resnick’s 15-year focus on TMT created pattern recognition that enabled him to identify Netflix’s advertising potential before the market, recognize AppLovin’s AI advantage ahead of the crowd, and execute optimal Nvidia exit timing.
In a market where passive indexing dominates retail flows and quantitative strategies proliferate among institutions, Jericho’s success demonstrates that fundamental analysis combined with concentrated conviction can still generate substantial alpha — if you have the expertise to execute it properly and the discipline to manage the risks.
The path to exceptional returns isn’t through diversification or market timing, but through developing genuine expertise in specific areas and having the conviction to act on that knowledge when opportunities present themselves.
This analysis is based on verified data from SEC 13F filings, Institutional Investor reporting, and publicly available fund performance data through December 2024. Assets under management figures reflect the fund’s growth from $4 billion (March 2024) to $7.4 billion (March 2025) following exceptional performance. All major claims have been cross-referenced against multiple independent sources including regulatory filings and financial press coverage.
Key Sources:
Institutional Investor Rich List 2024
SEC Form 13F Filings (Q1-Q4 2024)
Jericho Capital Asset Management Portfolio Disclosures
Netflix, AppLovin, Nvidia Quarterly Reports
Financial Industry Press Coverage
Josh Resnick founded Jericho Capital Asset Management in 2009, focusing on global technology, media, and telecommunications investments. The firm currently manages approximately $7.4 billion across multiple strategies. For more quantitative research case studies analyzing how hedge funds generate returns, follow this series.
Cover photograph: Billie Grace Ward, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.