Michael Platt’s BlueCrest Capital Management has posted a standout performance amid the latest bout of market dislocation, chalking up a 20% gain year-to-date as of early April, according to a report by Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the matter.
The discretionary macro and multi-strategy investment firm – now operating as a private partnership managing the wealth of Platt and his senior team – capitalised on sharp cross-asset moves triggered by former President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement, which roiled global equities and fixed income markets.
The gains are net of all fees and expenses and reflect the firm’s capital invested across its internal portfolio management teams, the sources said. A spokesperson for BlueCrest declined to comment.
“BlueCrest continues to prove its ability to monetise volatility in macro-driven markets,” said one institutional allocator. “When others are cutting exposure, they tend to thrive.”
Platt, a former JPMorgan trader who co-founded BlueCrest in 2000, has built one of the most profitable hedge fund operations in recent years by combining aggressive use of leverage with a multi-PM model, where capital is dynamically allocated to high-conviction managers across macro, rates, FX and relative value strategies.
Since returning outside investor capital in 2016, BlueCrest has focused exclusively on proprietary capital — a shift that has allowed greater flexibility in portfolio construction, risk-taking, and return distribution.
“Running private capital with a scalable multi-manager structure gives them an edge in volatile environments like this,” said a former BlueCrest executive.
While exact current AUM figures are undisclosed, a 2022 court filing suggested the firm managed $3.9bn in partner capital, with $15bn in gross trading capacity deployed across its platform.
BlueCrest’s strong performance comes as many hedge funds are struggling amid the Trump tariff turmoil. The MSCI World Index slid 9.3% over two days last week – the worst drop since the pandemic – forcing a broad risk-off response across institutional portfolios, while according to Bloomberg data, Goldman Sachs, long-short equity hedge fund clients were down 4.7% over that same stretch.
Some multi-strats fared better meanwhile, with Schonfeld Strategic Advisors posting gains through Friday, Citadel dipping just 0.35%, and Millennium Management down 0.7%.
