Bridgewater Associates’ flagship money pool posted record gains, while D.E. Shaw Co.’s strategies soared as much as 28% to rank among the biggest hedge fund winners of 2025 when tariff-fueled market uncertainty presented a fertile hunting ground for traders. Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha II mac ro fund returned 34% last year, its best ever, while the All Weather strategy rose 20%, a person with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. D.E. Shaw’s flagship multistrategy Composite hedge fund gained18.5% and Oculus made an estimated 28.2%.  Michel Massoud’s event-driven Melqart Opportunities Fund surged 45%, another person said. Millennium Management, the $83.5 billion multistrategy hedge fund firm, gained 10.5% last year. ExodusPoint, which has been building out its equities group to complement its fixed-income operations led by co-founder Michael Gelband, gained 18%, the most since its founding in 2017. The firm manages about $12 billion. Citadel’s flagship hedge fund posted a 10.2% increase in 2025, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified citing private information. It was the first year that Millennium outperformed Citadel’s Wellington fund since 2020. Read More: Citadel’s Flagship Hedge Fund Climbed 10.2% Last Year  The initial estimates show hedge funds overall posted strong gains with industry returns on track to be the best in at least five years as surging US stocks, precious metals and volatility in bond and currency markets spurred by President Donald Trump’s trade wars helped.  Bridgewater, the 50-year-old firm, posted double-digit returns across strategies. The money manager has been in reboot mode since Nir Bar Dea became sole chief executive officer in 2023 and made sweeping personnel changes and cut assets in a bid to boost performance. Westport, Connecticut-based Bridgewater’s billionaire founder, Ray Dalio, has completely exited the firm, selling his remaining stake and stepping down from the board last year. Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha II fund’s gains last year represent a rebound from annualized returns of less than 3% between 2012 and 2024, Bloomberg has previously reported. The firm’s AIA Labs fund that uses machine learning as the primary basis of its decision-making, has raised more than $5 billion and was up 11% last year, the person added. In the world of quantitative investing, AQR Capital Management’s multistrategy offering returned 19.6% in 2025, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified as the information is private. Read More: AQR’s Multistrategy Apex Gains 19.6% in Turbulent Quant Year Here’s how other hedge funds fared last year based on initial estimates: Hedge FundStrategy2025 ReturnMelqart OpportunitiesEvent-Driven45.1%Bridgewater Asia Macro37Discovery Macro35.6Bridgewater Pure Alpha IIMacro34Bridgewater ChinaMacro34DE Shaw OculusMultistrategy28.2Soroban OpportunitiesEquity Long/Short25AQR AdaptiveQuant Equity Market Neutral24.4Anson Investments MasterEquity21.2Bridgewater All WeatherRisk Parity20AQR ApexQuant Multistrategy19.6Citadel Tactical TradingMultistrategy18.6DE Shaw CompositeMultistrategy18.5DymonMultistrategy18.1ExodusPointMultistrategy18.04Kite Lake Special OpportunitiesEvent-Driven17.9AQR DelphiQuant Equity Long/Short16.8BalyasnyMultistrategy16.7Schonfeld Fundamental EquityMultimanager equity16.5WalleyeMultistrategy15.5Citadel EquitiesEquities14.5LMR PartnersMultistrategy13.5Schonfeld Strategic PartnersMultistrategy12.5Marshall WaceEureka*/Equity Long/Short11.6Pinpoint Multi-StrategyMultistrategy11.6Bridgewater AIA Quant Macro11TaulaMacro11Millennium Multistrategy10.5Citadel WellingtonMultistrategy10.2FIFTHDELTAEquity10.3New Holland Tactical AlphaMultistrategy9.8Citadel Global Fixed IncomeFixed Income9.4WintonQuant multistrategy7.4   Source: Bloomberg reporting  *as of Dec. 30   A representative for Bridgewater, which managed $92 billion as of September, declined to comment. Massoud, who manages about $1.4 billion, as well as representatives for the hedge funds mentioned in the table declined to comment. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com ...read more read less