| Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin Photo credit: (Bloomberg) |
June may have been a bust all over, with most market averages — and many hedge fund managers — finishing the month in the red. However, several big-name hedge funds posted strong results or continue to enjoy very good years. One of this year’s top performers is Caxton Global Investment, the fund founded by Bruce Kovner and taken over by Andrew Law in January 2012 and run out of New York-based Caxton Associates. The macro fund was up 2.25 percent in June alone and is now up 15.9 percent at the year’s halfway mark.
It is not clear which markets Law made money from or exploited.
However, if he protects these gains or builds on them in the second half, 2013 will wind up Caxton’s best year since 2002, when it posted gains that exceeded 20 percent.
That was the same year Caxton Associates topped Institutional Investor’s ranking as the largest hedge fund firm in the world with $10 billion under management. It was also the year the firm raised its fees to 3 percent of assets under management and 30 percent of performance.
“Caxton? I haven’t heard that name in years,” muses one prominent hedge fund manager.
Kenneth Griffin’s two main multistrategy funds — Kensington and Wellington — also made money in June, posting gains of 1.3 percent. Key drivers were fixed income, energy and equities.
This performance puts the two Citadel hedge funds up 7.6 percent for the year to date.
Israel Englander’s multistrategy funds at Millennium Management also made money in June, with the firm’s Millennium International posting a gain of 1.12 percent. For the year it is up 6.05 percent.
The flagship fund at Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, meanwhile, was up 1.5 percent in June and is now up 8.25 percent for the year.
One fund that lost money in June is still among the best performers this year.
David Tepper’s Palomino fund, run out of Short Hills, New Jersey-based Appaloosa Management, is up 17.4 percent in the first six months and 6.9 percent for the second quarter. The fund benefited from Tepper’s celebrated bullishness this year. It especially made money in shares of Citigroup and several airlines and also its long bet on the Japanese stock market.
Another manager who is up by double-digits this year despite losing money in June is Daniel Loeb. His Third Point Offshore fund is up 12.6 percent in the first half of the year even after shedding 1.8 percent last month.
