Citadel outshone by smaller hedge fund rivals in trade war turmoil

Keep knowledgeable with free updatesSimply signal as much as the Hedge funds myFT Digest — delivered on to your inbox.Ken Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel has been outshone by smaller rivals to this point this 12 months, because the agency was stung by the market volatility unleashed by Donald Trump’s commerce conflict. Citadel’s flagship Wellington fund gained 2.5 per cent within the first half of 2025, in response to an individual aware of the matter. Balyasny and ExodusPoint had been up 7.3 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively, in response to individuals who have seen the figures. Citadel, which manages round $66bn, is among the dominant gamers amongst so-called multi-manager funds, a sector that has sucked in billions of {dollars} from the world’s largest buyers. Balyasny and ExodusPoint handle roughly $25bn and $11bn respectively.Multi-manager companies have legions of buying and selling groups often called “pods”, which commerce quite a lot of methods in asset lessons together with equities, mounted earnings and commodities. They borrow giant sums from banks to juice returns and cling to strict danger administration to regulate losses, making them engaging to huge buyers resembling pension funds that want secure returns. Citadel was wrongfooted by Trump’s tariff insurance policies earlier this 12 months, with Griffin telling the Economist in Might that the agency needed to “tear aside and re-examine the portfolio . . . and ask your self in what methods we’ve positioned or mispositioned ourselves in opposition to the fact that the percentages of a recession have gone larger”.Final 12 months, Citadel eclipsed most rivals because it delivered 15.1 per cent to buyers. It’s annualised internet return because the agency was based 35 years in the past is roughly 19.2 per cent. Griffin, a serious Republican donor, has change into one in all Trump’s most outspoken critics, saying final 12 months that the president’s tariff plans would put the US “on a slippery slope to crony capitalism”.In the meantime the flagship Apex technique of billionaire Cliff Asness’s quant fund AQR was up 11.4 per cent within the first half of the 12 months, in response to an individual aware of the numbers.