These hedge funds crushed it in April and a key Liberation Day lesson helped them

"The sharp rebound across global markets pushed stocks to all-time highs, with the S&P 500 rising more than 10% in April. Hedge Fund Research called it a "historic gain" for the industry, with the average fund up 4.8% the second-best monthly return since 2009, behind only November 2020."

"Chase Coleman's Tiger Global, the long-running stockpicking firm, was up 15% in its flagship hedge fund strategy, putting it at roughly 3% for the year, a person close to the New York-based firm told Business Insider. Another of the firm's growth-stock-obsessed peers, Glen Kacher's Light Street Capital, returned 18.2% in April, pushing its 2026 returns to 11.3%."

"But it wasn't just stockpickers focused on US tech companies that dominated. CastleKnight Management, the $3.6 billion event-driven fund run by billionaire David Tepper's nephew, Aaron Weitman, was up 21.2% last month and has made 26.9% on the year. Kenneth Tropin's Graham Capital, which manages $21.6 billion in assets, made 6.6% in its Tactical Trend strategy and 4.2% in its Quant Macro offering in April; those two strategies are now up 20.5% and 11.1%, respectively, in 2026."

"Emerging-markets-focused manager Carrhae Capital, a London-based firm run by former SAC trader Ali Akay, was up 10% on the month through April 24 in the firm's long-short strategy. It pushed the strategy's year-to-date gains into black, with returns of 5.5%, HSBC's Hedge Weekly stated. In Hong Kong, another former investor for Point72 founder Steve Cohen, Angus Wai, has his Asia-focused multimanager firm firing on all cylinders."

Stocks reached all-time highs after a sharp global rebound in April, with the S&P 500 rising more than 10% during the month. Hedge fund performance also improved, with the average fund up 4.8%, the second-best monthly return since 2009. Several managers posted standout results, including Tiger Global up 15% in April and about 3% for the year, and Light Street Capital up 18.2% in April. Event-driven strategies also performed strongly, with CastleKnight Management up 21.2% in April. Other approaches such as tactical trend, quant macro, emerging-markets long-short, and Asia-focused multimanager strategies delivered positive monthly and year-to-date gains.

Read at www.businessinsider.com