Citadel Crushes It in May, Widening Lead Over Hedge Fund Rivals (Bloomberg) Ken Griffin’s good year keeps getting better. In a month that saw stock markets roiled by the escalating U.S.-China trade war and global growth concerns, the billionaire’s three equity businesses led profits for Citadel’s flagship hedge funds, which gained 2.4%, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The firm’s commodities and quantitative strategies were also top performers. May’s gain extended the funds’ returns for this year to 12.6%, beating the S&P 500 Index, the broader hedge fund industry and Griffin’s biggest hedge fund rivals.
As at end of May, S&P 500 was up about 10%. So beat by 2.6% looks more like a rounding difference to me. Certainly not what is suggested by the title.
Also S&P gains are net. The investors in Ken's fund would have to pay management and performance fees. Also the volatilty, taxation and liquidity is not as good as in the S&P. Shiny Object Syndrome in Finance? Maybe smaller funds do better but maybe don't get as much press.
Typically hedge funds show returns net of fees. Secondly those returns are actually pretty impressive when you consider the size of capital citadel has and the fact that they are stated to be market neutral. Meaning that all that SPX rally didn’t contribute to their performance. It was 100percet pure stock picking.
The performance is impressive on its own merits but relatively speaking you are better off with vanguard index fund