Citadel is an American hedge fund founded by Ken Griffin. It is the most profitable hedge-fund manager of all time, having returned $25bn in profits to investors since 2017. The firm relocated from Chicago to Miami in 2022.
Citadel follows the "multi-manager" model: senior executives allocate capital to different asset classes—equities and commodities are the largest—and within each asset class, capital is allocated to portfolio managers who have autonomy over investment decisions and pay. Each team operates as a fief but within risk limits set at the centre. The model is designed to create a firm that outlives its founder.
The firm is unusually well-financed for a hedge fund. Rather than relying on the same eight to ten prime brokers as most hedge funds, it finances its portfolios with more than 40 institutional counterparties and banks worldwide. Citadel has borrowed $1.6bn from bond markets—an unusually long-term source of funding for a hedge fund—and is the only multi-manager fund with an investment-grade credit rating. Its chief operating officer is Gerald Beeson.
A 54-storey headquarters for the firm is under construction on the Brickell waterfront in Miami; it will be Florida's tallest tower.
Citadel and the other four biggest multi-manager hedge funds together hold $1.6trn in positions (by notional value), having nearly tripled in size since 2019. Staff across the five biggest multi-managers grew from 6,000 to 15,000 over the same period.
If I'd known computer science was going to be like this, I'd never have given up being a rock 'n' roll star.