Hedge fund Haidar Capital is leading a pack of macro trading firms that are making the most of the global struggle to keep inflation under control.
Said Haidar’s $3.3 billion Haidar Jupiter Fund soared an estimated 29.6% in the four weeks through Aug. 26, boosting this year’s return to more than 225%, according to investor documents seen by Bloomberg.
Billionaire macro trader Chris Rokos and Edouard de Langlade each enjoyed gains of just under 10% in one of their best-ever months, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
The war in Ukraine and ensuing global energy crisis have pushed inflation to the highest in decades across many western economies this year, forcing central banks to take rapid action and injecting volatility into stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities.
Macro hedge funds, which specialize in predicting economic trends and betting across asset classes, have exploited the swings to make money. They’re up 2.7% through July as a group, while most of the other strategies are down this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Large moves in US and European short-dated forwards, broad US dollar strength and higher equity volatility created an ideal environment for discretionary macro strategies during August,” said Adam Jones, a senior portfolio manager at Hottinger Group, which invests in funds.
The recent performance contrasts with years of struggle at many big-name macro hedge funds since the 2008 financial crisis, when quantitative easing programs flooded the markets and dampened volatility. The era of easy money is now ending, with central banks offloading assets and quickly raising rates.
Traders are braced for a 75-basis-point hike by the European Central Bank next week, while Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has said that bringing price pressures down toward the 2% target was an “overarching focus.” US policy makers lifted their benchmark by 75 basis points at their last two meetings and Powell has said that another unusually large rise is possible next month.
Such moves have fired up the rates market, helping hedge funds to make money by shorting government bonds.
De Langlade’s $766 million EDL Global Opportunities Fund gained about 8% in August through Friday, taking returns for the year to almost 11%, according to an investor document. Upbeat trades on Turkish and Brazilian equities and short positions against US and European stocks along with US, European, UK and Japanese fixed income securities were profitable, he told Bloomberg.