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Bridgewater Associates’ flagship money pool posted record gains, while D.E. Shaw & Co.’s strategies soared as much as 28% to rank among the biggest hedge fund winners of 2025 when tariff-fueled market uncertainty presented a fertile hunting ground for traders.

Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha II macro fund returned 34% last year, its best ever, while the All Weather strategy rose 20%, a person with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. D.E. Shaw’s flagship multistrategy Composite hedge fund gained18.5% and Oculus made an estimated 28.2%. 

Michel Massoud’s event-driven Melqart Opportunities Fund surged 45%, another person said. Millennium Management, the $83.5 billion multistrategy hedge fund firm, gained 10.5% last year. ExodusPoint, which has been building out its equities group to complement its fixed-income operations led by co-founder Michael Gelband, gained 18%, the most since its founding in 2017. The firm manages about $12 billion.

Citadel’s flagship hedge fund posted a 10.2% increase in 2025, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified citing private information. It was the first year that Millennium outperformed Citadel’s Wellington fund since 2020.

Read More: Citadel’s Flagship Hedge Fund Climbed 10.2% Last Year 

The initial estimates show hedge funds overall posted strong gains with industry returns on track to be the best in at least five years as surging US stocks, precious metals and volatility in bond and currency markets spurred by President Donald Trump’s trade wars helped. 

Bridgewater, the 50-year-old firm, posted double-digit returns across strategies. The money manager has been in reboot mode since Nir Bar Dea became sole chief executive officer in 2023 and made sweeping personnel changes and cut assets in a bid to boost performance. Westport, Connecticut-based Bridgewater’s billionaire founder, Ray Dalio, has completely exited the firm, selling his remaining stake and stepping down from the board last year.

Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha II fund’s gains last year represent a rebound from annualized returns of less than 3% between 2012 and 2024, Bloomberg has previously reported. The firm’s AIA Labs fund that uses machine learning as the primary basis of its decision-making, has raised more than $5 billion and was up 11% last year, the person added.

In the world of quantitative investing, AQR Capital Management’s multistrategy offering returned 19.6% in 2025, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified as the information is private.

Read More: AQR’s Multistrategy Apex Gains 19.6% in Turbulent Quant Year

Here’s how other hedge funds fared last year based on initial estimates:

Hedge Fund Strategy 2025 Return
Melqart Opportunities Event-Driven 45.1%
Bridgewater Asia  Macro 37
Discovery  Macro 35.6
Bridgewater Pure Alpha II Macro 34
Bridgewater China Macro 34
DE Shaw Oculus Multistrategy 28.2
Soroban Opportunities Equity Long/Short 25
AQR Adaptive Quant Equity Market Neutral 24.4
Anson Investments Master Equity 21.2
Bridgewater All Weather Risk Parity 20
AQR Apex Quant Multistrategy 19.6
Citadel Tactical Trading Multistrategy 18.6
DE Shaw Composite Multistrategy 18.5
Dymon Multistrategy 18.1
ExodusPoint Multistrategy 18.04
Kite Lake Special Opportunities Event-Driven 17.9
AQR Delphi Quant Equity Long/Short 16.8
Balyasny Multistrategy 16.7
Schonfeld Fundamental Equity Multimanager equity 16.5
Walleye Multistrategy 15.5
Citadel Equities Equities 14.5
LMR Partners Multistrategy 13.5
Schonfeld Strategic Partners Multistrategy 12.5
Marshall Wace Eureka*/Equity Long/Short 11.6
Pinpoint Multi-Strategy Multistrategy 11.6
Bridgewater AIA  Quant Macro 11
Taula Macro 11
Millennium  Multistrategy 10.5
Citadel Wellington Multistrategy 10.2
FIFTHDELTA Equity 10.3
New Holland Tactical Alpha Multistrategy 9.8
Citadel Global Fixed Income Fixed Income 9.4
Winton Quant multistrategy 7.4
     
Source: Bloomberg reporting    
*as of Dec. 30    

A representative for Bridgewater, which managed $92 billion as of September, declined to comment. Massoud, who manages about $1.4 billion, as well as representatives for the hedge funds mentioned in the table declined to comment.



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