Big hedge funds score November gains with Trump election

By Carolina Mandl

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Several multibillion-dollar hedge funds gained in November, numbers seen by Reuters show, riding the volatility of the U.S. presidential election despite tight polling that made positioning more difficult for portfolio managers.

Following the election of Donald Trump on Nov. 5, U.S. stocks, the dollar and bitcoin rallied, while the euro and Mexico's peso struggled. U.S. treasuries did well in November, with the 10-year Treasury yield down by about 10 basis points over the course of the month, as a rally at the end of the month offset yield gains around the election.

Overall, global hedge funds posted gains of 1.46% last month through Nov. 27, and are up 10.6% year-to-date, according to a Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS ) prime brokerage note published on Nov 29.

Some portfolio managers, however, posted gains well above the average.

Technology-focused equity hedge fund SoMa Equity Partners soared 9.5% last month and had its best monthly performance, mainly benefiting gains in mid- and small caps, a source familiar with the numbers said.

Among the biggest contributors to its performance were WIX, which soared almost 32% in November, and Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG ) and Shopify (NYSE:SHOP ), up 22% and 44.5% respectively.

Macro (BCBA:BMAm ) hedge fund Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD ) Capital, founded by Rob Citrone, jumped 14.5% last month, another person said. His fund is up 46.5% on the year.

Discovery is known as a "Tiger cub" as its founder worked for legendary investor Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. Citrone bets on macro trends as well as equities, both long and short positions. All the asset classes were positive contributors to performance, this source added.

Multi-strategy hedge fund Cinctive Capital, with roughly $3 billion in assets at the end of 2023, jumped 5.1% last month, driven by returns in sectors such as technology, consumer, energy, utilities and financials. 

Ken Griffin's Citadel and Schonfeld both gained 1.8% in their flagship multi-strategy funds Wellington and Strategic Partners, according to sources. The Winton Fund gained 0.3%, a separate source said. 

See below hedge funds' performances in November*:

Fund Performance in

November

Citadel 1.8%

Wellington

Citadel 1.6%

Tactical

Trading

Schonfeld 1.8%

Strategic

Partners

Schonfeld 1.6%

Fundamenta

l Equity

Discovery 14.5%

Capital

The Winton 0.3%

Fund

Winton 0.2%

Diversifie

d Macro

Cinctive 5.1%



SoMa 9.5%

Equity

Source: Investing.com