April was a mixed month for a number of high-profile multistrategy hedge fund firms. Several firms lost money while others barely broke even, enabling them to preserve their strong early gains.
Multistrategy funds have grown popular among hedge fund investors. According to industry tracker eVestment, the strategy took in about $9.4 billion in March, boosting the total for the first quarter to $20.4 billion. This inflow was slightly higher than the first quarter of 2014 “and well above” the average of the past five-year first-quarter average.
Altogether, investors pumped $44.4 billion into multistrategy funds in 2014.
Highbridge Capital Corp. was one of the strategy’s top performers in April among large funds. The New York fund, run by Highbridge Capital Management (a unit of JPMorgan Chase), rose 2.26 percent for the month alone. It is now up 7.17 percent for the year.
Highbridge is said to have had strong performance in fundamental equities, quant equities, relative value and credit, and convertible bonds across the U.S., Europe and Asia. The firm is also said to be well diversified and global.
Kenneth Griffin’s Citadel saw its Kensington and Wellington funds squeeze out a small 0.36 percent gain last month. Even so, the Chicago firm’s flagship multistrategy funds are now up 7.31 percent for the year, making them perhaps the best-performing large multistrat funds.
Their gains were driven by strong performance in equities and commodities, along with event-driven, credit and quantitative strategies, according to knowledgeable sources.
Citadel’s Global Equities fund gained 0.69 percent in April and is now up 7.78 percent for the year to date.
Citadel Tactical Trading rose 0.49 percent for the month and is now up 8.01 percent for the year. This is an equities-based fund that also uses some statistical arbitrage, but it has not engaged in high-frequency trading for a while now.
Michael Platt’s BlueCrest International surged 2.8 percent in April, its best single month since January 2010. BlueCrest is said to have benefited from the bond sell-off in Europe and the UK.
Even so, the London-based fund is still down 3.46 percent for the year. But it is battling back from its 6 percent loss suffered in January, some of it related to the Swiss National Bank’s surprise move to allow the Swiss franc to float freely.
A couple of other large funds, however, lost money last month.
For example, Israel (Izzy) Englander’s New York–based Millennium International was down about 1 percent for the month, trimming its gain for the year to about 4.7 percent. According to an investor, the fund mostly lost money on the equity side.
Daniel Och’s OZ Master Fund fell 0.24 percent in April and is now up just 3.56 percent for the year, according to a regulatory filing.
Meanwhile, D.E. Shaw’s Oculus fund is up 8 percent through April. It is deemed to be a macro oriented multistrategy fund.
