Between the Reddit-fueled retail attack on popularly shorted stocks in early 2021 and the late-year tech selloff, many prominent equity-focused hedge funds lost money last year.
But many others enjoyed very successful years. This includes Senvest Management, which was perhaps the top performing hedge fund of meaningful size in 2021 after heavily benefitting from the short seller assault. The Senvest Master Fund posted an 85.2 percent gain, driven in large part by its long position in GameStop, which surged exponentially in January 2021 when retail investors were giddily buying shares of the video game retailer and other seemingly lousy companies that were heavily shorted by hedge fund honchos. Senvest exited the stock altogether by late January.
Little surprise, Senvest was one among six firms to be nominated in the equity-focused category for Institutional Investor’s 19th annual Hedge Fund Industry Awards. (Last year’s competition did not take place due to the global pandemic.)
The other equity-focused nominees were either concentrated on specific industries or, like Senvest, heavily benefitted from one stock. These include Impala Asset Management, whose Impala Resources fund surged nearly 52 percent; SRS Investment Management, which gained 35 percent thanks in large part to its long-held outsized investment in Avis Budget Group; EcoR1, which generated a 29 percent return, making it one of the only profitable life sciences funds; and activist Sachem Head Capital Management, which was up 23 percent.
One tech-focused fund also stood out: Seligman Tech Spectrum, a long-short fund that specializes in technology, media, telecom, and healthcare. It was up more than 50 percent.
These equity managers weren’t the only winners of 2021. Credit funds enjoyed their best results in a decade, with the Gapstow Capital Partners composite index of 106 hedge funds gaining 12.2 percent in 2021. All 106 funds made money, resulting in the index’s best year since 2013.
And this year’s nominees generated gains that far exceeded the index average. Silver Point Capital Fund was up 24 percent, GoldenTree Asset Management’s main fund was up nearly 22 percent, and SVPGlobal’s Strategic Value Restructuring Fund gained more than 24 percent.
It was a mediocre year in general for multistrategy funds, but several well-known names excelled. These included Citadel, whose Wellington Fund led the pack with a better-than 26 percent gain; Millennium International, which rose 13.5 percent; and D.E. Shaw’s Composite fund, which was up 18.5 percent. (D.E. Shaw also nabbed a nomination in the macro category for its Oculus fund.)
On the other hand, many of the categories featured top performers that are not exactly household names. Perhaps the most prominent among them is Haidar Capital Management, whose macro fund Haidar Jupiter Fund finished the year up about 69.5 percent.
The voting process for the Hedge Fund Awards begins with a public call for nominations. The II editorial staff concurrently devises a list of candidates based on its own knowledge of the firms and institutions, as well as discussions with its network of industry sources. All the nominations, as well as the internally generated candidates, are then vetted based on how strongly the editorial team believes they meet a wide range of criteria for their respective categories.
Now that the finalists have been named, II will conduct a wide survey of U.S. allocators and invite them to vote for the manager nominees. Hedge fund managers, in turn, will vote for the allocator nominees they believe should win. (Click here to see the list of allocator finalists.)
The winners will be revealed at a gala dinner and ceremony at the Mandarin Oriental in New York on Wednesday, April 27. Two Lifetime Achievement Awards will also be presented at the event, one to an investment manager, and another to an asset owner. Chris Hohn, founder and portfolio manager of TCI Fund Management, will accept the award for hedge fund managers. The allocator recipient will be named in the coming weeks.
For more information about the dinner, please visit the event website. Qualified allocators can vote here.
Institutional Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- Citadel
- The D.E. Shaw Group
- Elliott Management Corp.
- Man Group
- Millennium Management
- TCI Fund Management
Emerging Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- Anacapa Advisors
- Analog Century Management
- Castle Hook Partners
- Engine No. 1
- Madison Avenue Partners
- Synthesis Investment Management
Equity-Focused Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- EcoR1 Capital
- Impala Asset Management
- Sachem Head Capital Management
- Seligman Technology Group (Columbia Threadneedle Investments)
- Senvest Management
- SRS Investment Management
Credit-Focused Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- Brigade Capital Management
- GoldenTree Asset Management
- Hildene Capital Management
- Lodbrok Capital
- Silver Point Capital
- SVPGlobal
Multistrategy Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- Boothbay Fund Management
- Citadel
- The D. E. Shaw Group
- Elliott Management
- Millennium Management
- UBS O’Connor
Activist Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- Engaged Capital
- Pershing Square Capital Management
- Sachem Head Capital Management
- Starboard Value
- TCI Fund Management
- Trian Fund Management
Event-Driven Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- Armistice Capital
- Bardin Hill Investment Partners
- Fir Tree Partners
- HG Vora Capital Management
- Owl Creek Asset Management
- ValueAct Capital
Macro Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- Castle Hook Partners
- The D.E. Shaw Group
- Discovery Capital Management
- Gemsstock Ltd.
- Haidar Capital Management
- Kirkoswald Capital Partners
Quantitative Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- Arrowstreet Capital
- Campbell & Company
- Florin Court Capital
- John Street Capital
- Paloma Partners
- Systematica Investments
Most Innovative Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
- Adage Capital Management
- Magnetar Capital
- Man Group
- Marshall Wace
- RA Capital Management
- Taconic Capital
