Macro trader Said Haidar, whose leveraged bets on bonds almost tripled his investors’ cash last year, is off to a poor start in 2023.
(Bloomberg) — Macro trader Said Haidar, whose leveraged bets on bonds almost tripled his investors’ cash last year, is off to a poor start in 2023.
His $3.3 billion Haidar Jupiter fund tumbled an estimated 13% last month, according to an investor document seen by Bloomberg. The strategy soared by a record 193% in 2022.
Haidar runs his high-conviction macro strategy with abundant leverage, which leads to double-digit gains but also losses. Last year alone, he lost almost 20% in one month and gained 54% in another, a separate document shows.
It’s not clear what caused losses in January but the fund made most of the money last year on short bets in the bond market as yields rose, wagering against stocks and betting on commodities.
A spokesman for New York-based Haidar Capital Management declined to comment.
“There are increasing signs that growth in the rest of the world is starting to stabilize just as US economic data is deteriorating,” Haidar wrote to clients last month. “This growth divergence likely bodes poorly for the US Dollar and favorably for outperformance of Treasuries relative to European government bonds.”
“We expect that these trends will be further reinforced, as the Fed nears the end of its rate hiking cycle, just as the ECB, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan all appear poised to tighten further,” he added.
Haidar led the pack of macro hedge funds last year by taking advantage of central banks’ retreat from years of quantitative easing as they attempted to rein in spiraling inflation. Money managers including Chris Rokos, Michael Platt and Crispin Odey all produced record gains in 2022.
Haidar previously worked at Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers.
He has a track record of consistently producing gains even during the years when his peers were struggling with muted returns with leverage playing a key role. The firm reported regulatory assets of $62.6 billion, which includes leverage, at the end of 2021, according to a filing. It managed only $1.2 billion in client assets at the time.
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