Here’s How the Biggest Hedge Fund Managers Did in the First-Half

(Bloomberg) -- It’s been the best start to a year for hedge funds in a decade, and the returns for the biggest multi-strategy money managers are in.

Ken Griffin, who runs the $30 billion hedge-fund firm Citadel, is beating his largest rivals, gaining 13.6% in the first six months of the year in his flagship funds, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Those funds, Kensington and Wellington, are market neutral -- so their bullish wagers are matched by bearish ones. All five of the strategies that feed into them made money over the period, said the person.

Multi-strategy hedge funds, on average, gained about 6% in the first six months of the year, according to Hedge Fund Research. The industry overall is reporting its best start to a year in a decade, gaining 5.7% in the period, HFR data show. The S&P 500 index jumped about 19% during that time, with dividends reinvested.

In June, Citadel’s Kensington and Wellington rose 0.9%, led by gains in fixed income and macro as well as commodities. The firm’s Tactical Trading fund, a separate multi-strategy fund that employs equity and quantitative strategies, gained 1% in June, bringing year-to-date returns to about 12%, said the person. Citadel’s multi-manager platform counts on small teams of traders to manage money independently from one another.

After boasting the biggest hedge-fund startup ever, Michael Gelband’s performance has been underwhelming so far this year. His ExodusPoint Capital Management gained 3.3% in the first half, a person said. The one-time heir apparent to Millennium Management founder Izzy Englander is now trailing his former employer by about 1 percentage point. Carlson Capital’s Double Black Diamond fund is up just 1.7% after losing money in June.

Here’s how some of the biggest multi-strategy funds are faring, according to filings and people with knowledge of the matter.

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group Inc. is also having a banner year. Its $9 billion flagship fund surged almost 12% in the first half -- the best start to a year since 2009.

D.E. Shaw & Co.’s $14 billion composite fund jumped about 6% in the period, while Paul Singer’s $34 billion Elliott Management returned 4.2%.

Read about more hedge fund returns here.

Representatives for all of the firms declined to comment.

--With assistance from Hema Parmar.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Mirabella at amirabella@bloomberg.net, Melissa Karsh, Josh Friedman

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