Citadel Crushed It in May, Widening Lead Over Fund Rivals
Citadel Crushes It in May, Widening Lead Over Hedge Fund Rivals
(Bloomberg) -- Ken Griffin’s good year keeps getting better.
In a month that saw stock markets roiled by the escalating U.S.-China trade war and global growth concerns, the billionaire’s three equity businesses led profits for Citadel’s flagship hedge funds, which gained 2.4%, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The firm’s commodities and quantitative strategies were also top performers.
May’s gain extended the funds’ returns for this year to 12.6%, beating the S&P 500 Index, the broader hedge fund industry and Griffin’s biggest hedge fund rivals.
Wellington and Kensington, Citadel’s main multi-strategy hedge funds, employ a market-neutral strategy -- so their bets on rising shares are matched by wagers on falling stocks. Multi-manager platforms like Citadel, which oversees more than $30 billion, count on small teams of traders to manage money independently from one another.
Here’s how the flagship multi-strategy funds at Citadel’s biggest multi-manager rivals are faring, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Firm | May | Year-to-May 31 |
| Point72 Asset Management | 0.95% | 8.65% |
| Balyasny Asset Management | -0.26% | 7.75% |
| Millennium Management | 1.25% | 3.6% |
| ExodusPoint Capital Management | 0.63% | 3.01% |
| Carlson Capital | 0.10% | 2.43% |
Hedge funds, on average, lost 1.4% last month on an asset-weighted basis, according to Hedge Fund Research. They’re now up 2.8% this year through May, while the S&P 500 index is up 11%, with dividends reinvested, in the period. That’s even after the index dropped 6.4% last month.
Read more: Bloomberg Equity Hedge Fund Index posts May decline
Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, founded by Dan Och, and Paul Singer’s Elliott Management both saw their multi-strategy hedge funds, which aren’t structured as platforms, lose money last month.
Och-Ziff’s flagship fund, which managed $9.1 billion as of March 31, fell 1.9% in May, paring gains for the year to 9.4%, filings show. Elliott, which oversaw $34 billion as of Jan. 1, lost 0.3% in the offshore version of its main fund last month, and 0.1% in the onshore, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. For this year, the funds are up 1.6% and 1.9%, respectively, the person said.
Representatives for all of the firms declined to comment.
--With assistance from Hema Parmar.
To contact the reporter on this story: Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Mirabella at amirabella@bloomberg.net, Vincent Bielski, Melissa Karsh
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