Griffin, Cohen Lead Macro, Multi-Strat Crowd

Ken Griffin is off to a good start this year.

The Citadel founder was up 1 percent in March and is now up 7.5 percent for the year. Sources say he made gains across his various strategies.

The strong showing also placed Citadel within 7 or 8 percentage points of its high water mark.

You may recall, in 2008, Citadel lost 55 percent. In 2009 it rebounded sharply, surging 62 percent and last year followed up with roughly 11 percent gains in both the offshore Wellington fund and domestic Kensington fund.

Meanwhile, Stevie Cohen’s SAC Capital was up more than 2 percent in March and is up around 5 ½ percent for the quarter. Investors say his gains are especially impressive since Cohen’s net exposure is very low. One investor says Cohen seems to make money every week.

In fact Cohen, who personally has been known for his long-short equity trading, has personally been incorporating more of a global macro approach.

Griffin’s and Cohen’s gains far exceed those of most macro and multi-strategy managers, who have had trouble navigating through the enormous volatility in the numerous global markets.

For example, Izzy Englander’s Millennium, which is known for its less volatile, steadier returns, is up a little more than 3 percent for the first quarter.

Louis Bacon’s Macro Managers fund is only up around 0.40 percent for the year.

However, Remington, which Bacon himself heads up, lost 0.17 percent in March and was off 0.60 percent for the quarter.

Others high-profile funds were also in the red.

Through March 29, Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Global Investment was down 2.31 percent for the month and off 2.37 percent for the quarter.

Through March 25, Paul Tudor Jones II’s Tudor BVI was down 0.47 percent.

Altogether, the average macro fund followed by HFR was down 1.3 percent in the first quarter while the average commodity trading advisor (CTA) lost 1.7 percent.