- Ken Griffin’s Citadel led the way in 2023 among its peers, returning 15.3% in its flagship fund.
- Multi-strategy peers such as Millennium, D.E. Shaw, and Point72 each made roughly 10% for the year.
- Funds that lagged the market and larger peers include Balyasny, Schonfeld, and Walleye.
Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel finished 2023 atop the industry again.
In the hypercompetitive multi-strategy space, where firms are battling for returns, assets, and talent, Griffin’s flagship fund led the way with a 15.3% gain, sources familiar with the figures told Business Insider.
The firm’s Wellington fund has been on a particularly strong streak, returning 38% and 26% in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Citadel’s tactical (14.8%), equities (11.6%), and fixed-income funds (10.9%) all notched double-digit results as well.
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Citadel’s peers, such as Izzy Englander’s Millennium and Steve Cohen’s Point72, generally performed well in 2023, though not even Griffin could surpass the S&P 500’s 24% gain, much of which was driven by a handful of mega-cap tech stocks like Nvidia and Meta.
Point72 finished the year up 10.6% after a small gain in December, while Millennium returned 10%. D.E. Shaw, which pairs fundamental strategies with its bread-and-butter quant traders, made 9.6% in its flagship fund for the year. Its macro-focused Oculus fund returned 7.8%.
Capital Fund Management, a $12.5 billion multi-strat that emphasizes its data chops, had strong years in its two biggest strategies, Discus and Stratus, which returned 14.8% and 11.3%, respectively
Smaller rivals struggled to keep up with the largest players as the rising costs of multi-strategy funds continued to squeeze the industry’s midsized peers.
Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint was up 7.3% for the year, while $8 billion Verition made 8.2%. Minnesota-based Walleye lost money in December and finished the year at 3.9%. Schonfeld — which suffered significant layoffs at the end of the year connected to a $3 billion infusion from several large institutions — made 3% in its flagship fund and 5% in its smaller equities fund.
The firm that has carved its way into the conversation with the industry’s titans is Balyasny, founded by former Schonfeld trader Dmitry Balyasny. But the fund, which now manages over $20 billion, returned less than 3% for the year in 2023 and had at least one blow-up that forced the firm to liquidate a $100 million portfolio, Bloomberg reported.
The firms mentioned either declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment. See additional estimated performance figures below — numbers are known to shift around slightly as the dust settles — including from London-based managers Eisler and LMR: