- Hedge funds are off to a good start in 2024 after mediocre performance last year.
- January returns were strong at multi-strategy managers like Citadel, Point72, and Millennium.
- A leaner Schonfeld closed out a rough 2023 on high note, and it’s kept the momentum going in 2024.
In 2023, even the best multi-strategy hedge funds trailed the broader stock market. Citadel led its peers with a 15.3% gain last year, but the S&P 500 notched a total return of 26.3%.
The first month of 2024 is in the books, and $62 billion Citadel is once again outperforming with a 1.9% gain in its flagship Wellington fund in January, according to people familiar with the results. The mult-strategy giant has tied for the top spot with Boothbay, the $2 billion firm run by Ari Glass.
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The hedge funds are part of a handful to start the year ahead of the S&P, which was up 1.6% in January.
That includes Steve Cohen’s Point72, which gained 1.8%, and Schonfeld’s flagship Strategic Partners Fund. Schonfeld struggled to produce returns for most of 2023, culminating in layoffs this November and a campaign to secure a multi-billion dollar capital injection from investors. But performance rebounded the last couple months of the year.
In January, the leaner Schonfeld kept up the pace, returning an estimated 1.7% in its flagship fund, putting it toward the top of the pack to start the year, according to people familiar with the results. Its smaller Fundamental Equity fund returned 1.3%.
Here’s how other multi-strategy hedge funds performed in January:
The firms mentioned either declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
