- January was filled with macro tremors and market jitters, but big-name hedge funds were positive.
- Walleye and Balyasny led the way for multistrategy hedge funds.
- Firms like Schonfeld, ExodusPoint, and Millennium were positive in January.
In a rocky month filled with geopolitical tension and artificial intelligence breakthroughs, the biggest names in the $4.5 trillion hedge fund industry still made money.
Walleye, which runs $5.8 billion in its multistrategy fund, led the way with a 3.6% gain in January, a person close to the firm told Business Insider. Larger rivals like $20 billion Balyasny and $12 billion Schonfeld were also up in January, making 2.5% and 2.2%, respectively, people familiar with the managers told Business Insider.
January markets were choppy, thanks to President Donald Trump’s trade and immigration policy plans and a breakthrough from Chinese artificial intelligence darling DeepSeek.
The S&P 500 finished the month up 2.7%, but there was a significant sell-off of big-name tech stocks like Nvidia in mid-January. The chipmaker is down more than 10% for the year after a blockbuster 2024, though other tech giants are up for the year, including Facebook parent Meta and Amazon.
Multistrategy funds, which have become LPs’ favorite thanks to their ability to handle volatility, were mostly able to shrug off the tech sell-off and macro jitters. While ExodusPoint and Millennium didn’t match the monthly returns of the market, the managers made 2% and 0.5% in January, respectively, people close to the firms said.
More firms will be added as returns are learned. The managers declined to comment.
