Walleye dominated August. Here’s how its $4.8 billion multistrategy fund stacked up against the industry’s biggest names.

• Walleye’s multistrategy fund was up 3.4% in August, a turbulent month for equity markets.
• The firm is now up 11.4% for the year, besting larger rivals like Citadel and Millennium.
• The S&P 500 gained 2.3% in August but started the month with a big sell-off and was down more than 7% at one point.

Walleye rode its stockpickers and algorithms to its best month of the year in a turbulent August.

A person close to the manager said the firm was up 3.4% last month in its $4.8 billion multi-strategy fund, pushing its 2024 gains to 11.3%. All four strategies that feed into this fund — fundamental equity, quant, volatility, and technical, which includes some macro-like strategies — were up last month, this person said.

The firm’s volatility strategies, which go back to the firm’s roots as a proprietary options market-making operation in Minnesota, were a key part in helping the fund weather the rocky markets at the start of August, this person added.

The S&P 500 finished August up 2.3%, but it was a roller coaster of a month for stockpickers. The index fell precipitously at the start of August thanks to turmoil in Japanese markets and investor unease around US economic data; at one point, it was down more than 7% before finishing the month near its all-time high.

Walleye’s fund paced the multi-strategy universe last month, though the firm is much smaller than its largest rivals. The manager is closed to new capital commitments right now and expects to be at $5 billion by the fourth quarter, the person close to the firm said.

Schonfeld’s flagship fund continues to outperform other hedge funds in 2024, returning 11.9% so far this year, a person close to the firm told Business Insider.

Meanwhile, Ken Griffin’s flagship fund, Wellington, at $63 billion Citadel, was up 1% in August. The gain brought the Miami-based firm’s returns to 9.9% for the year.

Izzy Englander’s Millennium was up 0.7% last month, bringing the firm’s returns to 8.1% for the year.

ExodusPoint continues to trail the pack, though had a solid August, notching gains of 0.9% in August. The firm is up 4.6% for 2024.

See below for return figures. It will be updated with additional firms’ numbers as they are learned.