Citadel’s flagship Wellington hedge fund has trimmed its losses following a turbulent start to March, recovering from a 2% drawdown to less than 1% down year-to-date, driven largely by a recovery in US equities, according to a report by Reuters.
The report cites an unnamed source familiar with the fund’s performance as highlighting that the turnaround comes as Citadel founder Ken Griffin directed senior management to “play offence”, increasing capital allocations to around 25% of the firm’s US equity portfolio managers amid heightened market volatility amid policy uncertainty under President Donald Trump.
This strategic shift helped Wellington regain ground after a broader market selloff saw hedge funds unwinding positions at their largest pace in years.
According to JPMorgan, multi-strategy hedge funds had, on average, been down 3.2% through 10 March but pared losses to 0.7% through 13 March, reflecting a partial recovery across the sector.
