Rokos’s Hedge Fund Raises $1 Billion After Record Annual Loss
Rokos’s Hedge Fund Raises $1 Billion After Record Annual Loss
(Bloomberg) -- The biggest annual loss for Chris Rokos’s hedge fund isn’t deterring investors.
The macro trader pulled in $1 billion of new cash this week and is in talks with investors to raise more capital, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The inflows came after Rokos’s hedge fund slumped about 26% last year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
A spokesman for London-based Rokos Capital Management declined to comment.
Rokos’s $12 billion firm was one of the biggest casualties among macro traders wrong-footed by the wild swings in bond markets last year as speculation rose that central banks would raise rates faster than expected to contain inflation. Most of the losses came in October, in part because of wagers that the difference between short- and long-term U.K. and U.S. government bond yields would widen. They tightened instead.
| Rokos Macro Fund | Year | Return |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | -26% | |
| 2020 | 43.8 | |
| 2019 | 9.3 | |
| 2018 | 2 | |
| 2017 | -3.6 | |
| 2016 | 20.1 | |
| 2015 | -3.2 | |
| Source: Investor document, Bloomberg reporting | ||
The loss came after a record 43.8% return in 2020 that helped lift revenues. That allowed Rokos and his partners to earn a $1.2 billion payout for the year ending March 2021, just before the hedge fund started to lose money.
The firm raised the money despite investors pulling cash from macro hedge fund peers last year. The strategy suffered $6.7 billion in net withdrawals through November, according to data compiled by eVestment.
Rokos, who has an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, started trading for his investment firm in 2015. His fund has remained mostly closed to new money. The firm had about $14.5 billion at the start of last year.
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