- The billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones told Wall Street investors last week that he expected market volatility to go up. It has been a long-term view for Jones, according to a person familiar with his fund.
- His fund, which has struggled in recent years, is up 4.8% this year through January.
The hedge fund legend Paul Tudor Jones spoke at a private investor conference last week, and he told a group of Wall Street investors he was betting on a spike in volatility.
One person who attended summarized Jones' comments. "It's the one thing I could guarantee," this person recalled Jones saying. "I'd be buying volatility all day."
Jones made the comments last Monday, January 29, in South Florida at Morgan Stanley's Breakers conference, which is closed to the press. Business Insider confirmed Jones' comments with Tudor Investment Corporation, Jones' hedge fund.
To be sure, Jones has made similar comments before, according to a separate person who attended the conference, as have other hedge fund titans — including Baupost Group's Seth Klarman and Elliott Management's Paul Singer. Last year, Jones told a private conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs that investors should be terrified of market valuations, Bloomberg reported.
Still, the comments came before a sharp sell-off in stocks, triggered in part by better-than-expected wage growth. That has sent the Cboe Volatility Index — or VIX — soaring. The index was trading above 37 on Monday, up from around 14.5 when Jones made the comments.
Tudor's flagship fund, which runs a macro strategy, gained 4.8% in January, according to a person close to the firm. More recent figures were not available. Bloomberg reported the figures earlier Monday.
Other macro funds that have largely struggled, such as Brevan Howard, are also seeing an uptick this year.
The recent performance provides a rare bright spot for Tudor, which for years has suffered from underperformance.
Last year, the flagship fund fell by 2.2%, according to the person close to the firm.
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