Multi-strategy mavens got through a volatile March relatively unscathed.
While the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank hit some hedge fund managers, firms that offer exposure to a diverse array of asset classes and strategies recorded small gains and low losses.
Billionaire Ken Griffin's Citadel's flagship Wellington fund again outpaced its rivals with a 1.38% gain in March, bringing its year-to-date performance to 4.19%, according to people familiar with the fund's performance. Point72 Asset Management was close behind. Steve Cohen's fund delivered 1.33% in March, sources told Insider.
Other multi-strategy players were flat or saw small dips in their performance in March. Representatives for the firms declined to comment.
| Fund | March performance |
Year-to-date performance
|
| Citadel | 1.38% | 4.19% |
| Point72 | 1.33% | 2.85% |
|
D. E. Shaw (as of 3/24) |
(0.20%) | 1.50% |
| ExodusPoint | (1.50%) | 1.25% |
| Balyasny | 0.80% | 1.00% |
| Millennium | (0.15%) | 0.40% |
| Schonfeld | 0.02% | (0.30)% |
Citadel, which earned a record $16 billion profit in 2022, reported gains across its other core strategies as well.
- The tactical trading fund reported a 2.18% return in March and generated 5.46% year-to-date.
- Equities was up 2.16% in March, bringing year-to-date performance to 4.56%.
- Its global fixed income fund returned 0.12% in March, bringing year-to-date performance to 1.77%.
Hedge fund performance figures are still trickling out, but data and reports suggest that trend-following and macro funds were caught out after the banking crisis rocked markets. Societe Generale's CTA index, which tracks 20 of the largest trend-following funds, dropped 6.48% in March.
According to Bloomberg, London-based Rokos Capital Management wrote to investors saying that it was cutting some risky bets after its macro hedge fund lost 15.3% this month through March 17.
The S&P 500 ended the month with a 3.5% gain despite the biggest bank failures since the 2008 crisis and the Federal Reserve pushing forward with its aggressive interest-rate increases.