Hedge funds put in mixed performance in January

Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital, speaks at the Wall Street Journal Digital Conference in Laguna Beach, California, U.S., October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

TORONTO, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Hedge funds ended a volatile January with widely diverging returns after markets went on a roller-coaster ride due to geopolitical turmoil and fears of looming rising interest rates.

Stock-picking hedge funds lost 6.22% in January, according to a note from Goldman Sachs seen by Reuters, a steeper decline than 5.23% loss on Wall Street’s S&P 500 benchmark, while health care and technology focussed strategies slid more than 10%. Goldman confirmed the figures in the note.

Billionaire investor William Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings lost 8.2% in January, tumbling early in the month and then clawing back returns in the last week.

Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings portfolio ended the first three weeks of January down 13.8%, the worst performance to start a year for Ackman in years. read more

However, Pershing Square Holdings lost 1.3% in both January 2021 and January 2020 after making gains of 18.3% in the first month of 2019.

Balyasny Asset Management, which manages $14 billion in assets, gained 2.4% over the same period, an investor told Reuters.

A spokesperson for Balyasny declined to comment.

Computer-based hedge funds landed in positive territory in the first month of the year, posting returns of 5.3%, said the note from Goldman.

Among computer-based firms, multi-billion-dollar AQR’s alternative risk premia fund ended January up 7.14%, according to its website.

Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Svea Herbst-Bayliss, additional reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by David Gregorio

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