Bridgewater Associates’ flagship Pure Alpha 18% fund jumped 7.8 percent in February, boosting its gain for the first two months of the year to 9.9 percent, say two people who have seen the results. As a result, the macro giant has more than made up last year’s loss, when the fund, also known as PA II, dropped 7.6 percent.
Discovery Global Opportunity Fund is also doing well this year. It was up a little more than 2 percent last month and 9.17 percent for the year, according to an investor. The fund made money in all asset classes even though it was net short equities by about an average of 10 percent for the year, says the investor.
Institutional Investor previously reported that Discovery Capital Management founder Robert Citrone told clients in a January 2 market outlook that from the vantage point of his more than 30 years of investing it’s an “opportune time to generate superior risk-adjusted returns” in all asset classes and in both emerging- and developed markets.
Other macro funds lost money in February and are barely profitable or in the red for the year.
Caxton Global Investment is up just 56 basis points after dropping 1.26 percent in February, says someone who has seen the results.
Several Brevan Howard funds fell into the red for the year after suffering sharp losses last month. For example, BH Macro Fund is down 2.89 percent in 2024 after losing 3.12 percent in February, according to the firm. In January, when the fund was up 23 basis points, all gains came from interest rate markets, per the most recent monthly report. That gain was offset mostly by losses from equities. It is unknown what drove February’s drop.
The volatile Haidar Jupiter Fund, meanwhile, dropped 1.18 percent in February, extending its loss for the year to 5.4 percent, according to a monthly email sent to clients and seen by II. The fund fell 4.27 percent in January, with most of the decline coming from the fixed-income strategy. Foreign exchange played a smaller role, according to the January report.
The Haidar fund’s losses were offset somewhat by equities trading. Heading into February, fixed-income accounted for 42 percent of capital; foreign exchange made up 20 percent, equities 19 percent, and commodities 16 percent.
“The Fund . . . suffered [in January] from U.S.-dollar strength and weakness in global bonds and the yen,” Haidar told clients in the January report. “Looking ahead, central bankers appear determined not to be led by market expectations regarding rate cuts. Consequently, we anticipate further short-term weakness in bonds. But with real rates becoming more and more restrictive as rate cuts are slow-walked, the probability of growth downturns requiring more than just maintenance cuts rises.”