Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, speaks at the Milken Global Conference 2024 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on May 6, 2024.
David Swanson | Reuters
Billionaire investor Ken Griffin’s suite of hedge funds at Citadel eked out small gains in what proved a volatile month in August as markets grappled with an emerging growth scare.
Citadel’s multistrategy Wellington fund gained about 1% in August, bringing its year-to-date return to 9.9%, according to a person familiar with the returns, who spoke anonymously because the performance numbers are private. All five strategies used in the flagship fund — commodities, equities, fixed income, credit and quantitative — were positive for the month, the person said.
The Miami-based firm’s tactical trading fund rose 1.5% last month and is up 14.5% on the year. Its equities fund, which uses a long/short strategy, edged up 0.8%, pushing its 2024 returns to 9.3%.
Citadel declined to comment. The hedge fund complex had about $63 billion in assets under management as of Aug. 1.
Volatility made a strong comeback in August as fears of a recession were rekindled by a weak July jobs report. On Aug. 5, the S&P 500 dropped 3%, its worst day since September 2022. Still, the market quickly bounced back, with the equity benchmark ending August up 2.3%. The S&P 500 is now ahead more than 15% in 2024.
Overall, the hedge fund community recently moved into a defensive mode as macroeconomic uncertainty mounted. Hedge funds on net sold global equities for a seventh straight week recently, driven by sales of communication services plus financial and consumer staples stocks, according to Goldman Sachs’ prime brokerage data.