Hedge Fund Returns May 2026: Melqart Leads With 12.3% as Citadel and Balyasny Trail
While Citadel and Balyasny navigated May with disciplined caution, event-driven specialists ran the table. The month's big lesson: in a geopolitical crisis, agility beats scale.
For much of May 2026, global markets had no idea what to do with themselves.
The U.S.–Iran conflict escalated, then showed signs of resolution. Oil surged above $90, then retreated. Credit spreads widened and snapped back within the same week. It was the kind of month that punishes indecision and rewards anyone who had already picked a side.
Melqart Asset Management had picked a side. Michel Massoud's London-based event-driven fund posted a 12.3% gain in May its strongest single month of the year taking its year-to-date return to 25.7%. Built on merger arbitrage, sub-investment grade credit, and special situations equity, Melqart was designed for markets that move. With geopolitical shocks creating simultaneous dislocations across all three of its core strategies, May delivered everything the fund was built for. The firm already returned 45% in 2025 and is now opening a Dubai office planting itself inside the region generating the volatility.
What makes the scoreboard remarkable is not who topped it it is who fell short. Citadel Wellington gained 1.4% in May and sits at just 3.8% for the year. Balyasny returned 1.4% and is barely above water at 0.6% year-to-date. These are disciplined, risk-managed results. They are also a full order of magnitude below what the specialists produced. In 2026, agility is outrunning scale.
The biggest funds are not always the sharpest. When the world gets complicated, money flows to whoever is already positioned for it.
— Markets Desk, June 2026
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