Bridgewater Associates’ flagship cash pool posted file positive factors, whereas D.E. Shaw & Co.’s methods soared as a lot as 28% to rank among the many largest hedge fund winners of 2025 when tariff-fueled market uncertainty introduced a fertile looking floor for merchants.
Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha II macro fund returned 34% final 12 months, its greatest ever, whereas the All Climate technique rose 20%, an individual with information of the matter stated, asking to not be recognized discussing non-public info. D.E. Shaw’s flagship multistrategy Composite hedge fund gained18.5% and Oculus made an estimated 28.2%.
Michel Massoud’s event-driven Melqart Alternatives Fund surged 45%, one other particular person stated. Millennium Administration, the $83.5 billion multistrategy hedge fund agency, gained 10.5% final 12 months. ExodusPoint, which has been constructing out its equities group to enhance its fixed-income operations led by co-founder Michael Gelband, gained 18%, essentially the most since its founding in 2017. The agency manages about $12 billion.
Citadel’s flagship hedge fund posted a ten.2% enhance in 2025, in accordance with an individual aware of the matter, who requested to not be recognized citing non-public info. It was the primary 12 months that Millennium outperformed Citadel’s Wellington fund since 2020.
Learn Extra: Citadel’s Flagship Hedge Fund Climbed 10.2% Final Yr
The preliminary estimates present hedge funds total posted sturdy positive factors with business returns on monitor to be the perfect in a minimum of 5 years as surging US shares, valuable metals and volatility in bond and forex markets spurred by President Donald Trump’s commerce wars helped.
Bridgewater, the 50-year-old agency, posted double-digit returns throughout methods. The cash supervisor has been in reboot mode since Nir Bar Dea grew to become sole chief govt officer in 2023 and made sweeping personnel modifications and reduce belongings in a bid to spice up efficiency. Westport, Connecticut-based Bridgewater’s billionaire founder, Ray Dalio, has fully exited the agency, promoting his remaining stake and stepping down from the board final 12 months.
Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha II fund’s positive factors final 12 months symbolize a rebound from annualized returns of lower than 3% between 2012 and 2024, Bloomberg has beforehand reported. The agency’s AIA Labs fund that makes use of machine studying as the first foundation of its decision-making, has raised greater than $5 billion and was up 11% final 12 months, the particular person added.
On this planet of quantitative investing, AQR Capital Administration’s multistrategy providing returned 19.6% in 2025, in accordance with an individual aware of the matter who declined to be recognized as the knowledge is non-public.
Learn Extra: AQR’s Multistrategy Apex Positive factors 19.6% in Turbulent Quant Yr
Right here’s how different hedge funds fared final 12 months primarily based on preliminary estimates:
Hedge FundStrategy2025 ReturnMelqart OpportunitiesEvent-Driven45.1percentBridgewater Asia Macro37Discovery Macro35.6Bridgewater Pure Alpha IIMacro34Bridgewater ChinaMacro34DE Shaw OculusMultistrategy28.2Soroban OpportunitiesEquity Lengthy/Short25AQR AdaptiveQuant Fairness Market Neutral24.4Anson Investments MasterEquity21.2Bridgewater All WeatherRisk Parity20AQR ApexQuant Multistrategy19.6Citadel Tactical TradingMultistrategy18.6DE Shaw CompositeMultistrategy18.5DymonMultistrategy18.1ExodusPointMultistrategy18.04Kite Lake Particular OpportunitiesEvent-Driven17.9AQR DelphiQuant Fairness Lengthy/Short16.8BalyasnyMultistrategy16.7Schonfeld Elementary EquityMultimanager equity16.5WalleyeMultistrategy15.5Citadel EquitiesEquities14.5LMR PartnersMultistrategy13.5Schonfeld Strategic PartnersMultistrategy12.5Marshall WaceEureka*/Fairness Lengthy/Short11.6Pinpoint Multi-StrategyMultistrategy11.6Bridgewater AIA Quant Macro11TaulaMacro11Millennium Multistrategy10.5Citadel WellingtonMultistrategy10.2FIFTHDELTAEquity10.3New Holland Tactical AlphaMultistrategy9.8Citadel World Mounted IncomeFixed Income9.4WintonQuant multistrategy7.4 Supply: Bloomberg reporting *as of Dec. 30
A consultant for Bridgewater, which managed $92 billion as of September, declined to remark. Massoud, who manages about $1.4 billion, in addition to representatives for the hedge funds talked about within the desk declined to remark.
