Chris Rokos’s Macro Hedge Fund Surges 44% in Best Year Ever

(Bloomberg) -- Chris Rokos’s hedge fund racked up its best year since the billionaire investor started his own macro trading firm more than five years ago, joining a string of peers who posted record gains in 2020.

His $14.5 billion macro fund soared 44% as the pandemic upended markets, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The London-based fund’s previous best year was in 2016, when it rose 20%.

Macro hedge funds, which trade across asset classes to capitalize on broad economic trends, ended last year up 7% on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Rokos’s returns coincide with a structural overhaul at his firm in late 2019, which allowed for bigger bets as portfolios previously run by individual traders were merged into a single pool of money.

A spokesman for London-based Rokos Capital Management, which started in 2015, declined to comment.

Rokos joins a slew of macro fund managers that posted double-digit gains last year as market turbulence created opportunities for the firms. Brevan Howard Asset Management, Rokos’s former employer, made 27% in its master fund, the best year since 2003, while its U.S. Rates Opportunities Fund soared nearly 99%. EDL Capital and Glen Point Capital gained 23% and 14%, respectively.

Rokos, who co-founded Brevan Howard and made $4 billion for the firm from 2004 to 2012, started his own investment firm with initial capital from investors including Blackstone Group Inc. It is now one of the largest hedge funds in Europe.

He has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

(Updates with firm overhaul in 3rd paragraph)