Hedge fund Millennium gains 15% in 2024

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Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management gained 15 per cent last year, beating the wider hedge fund industry but lagging a soaring US stock market.

The firm, which manages $72.1bn across more than 320 investment teams, made 2.5 per cent last month, according to investors.

Millennium looks to have outpaced the performance of the wider $4.5tn hedge fund industry last year. Hedge funds on average gained 2.4 per cent in November and are up 10.2 per cent in the first 11 months of 2024, according to Hedge Fund Research. The data provider has not yet published figures for December.

Last year, the S&P 500 index of US blue-chip companies rose 23.3 per centon the back of big gains for a handful of tech companies.

Alongside Ken Griffin’s Citadel, Millennium — which Englander founded in 1989 with assets of $35mn — is a pioneer of the multi-manager hedge fund model. These funds trade a wide range of strategies across equities, fixed income, commodities, currencies and other markets. Millennium declined to comment.

Sometimes known as platforms or pod shops, multi-managers typically employ a centralised risk system designed to prevent big losses. The sector has become the most popular segment of the global hedge fund industry, with its promise of consistent returns with low volatility, regardless of market swings, resonating with clients such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds.

Multi-managers were up 6.8 per cent in the first 11 months of last year, according to HFR. Industry gains last year were led by equity-focused hedge funds, which were up 3.1 per cent in November and 13.1 per cent in the first 11 months of the year. Performance in November was driven by Donald Trump’s US presidential election victory, as managers and investors positioned themselves for more business-friendly policies from the incoming administration.

Meanwhile D.E. Shaw’s flagship multi-strategy Composite hedge fund gained 18 per cent in 2024, and its second-largest fund Oculus surged 36 per cent, its best-ever year, according to a person familiar with the situation. The $65bn firm is expected to give back half of last year’s profits from the two funds to clients, the person said.

D.E. Shaw declined to comment on the figures, which were first reported by Bloomberg.

Multi-manager performance in 2023 was mixed, with larger groups such as Citadel and Millennium recording double-digit returns, while some smaller names such as Balyasny Asset Management and Schonfeld Strategic Advisors did little better than the return from cash.

But 2024 is looking set to be a year of stronger returns for the sector, with Citadel, Balyasny and Schonfeld making double-digit gains in the 11 months to the end of November, investors said.