Special report | Titans of finance

Can anything stop America’s superstar hedge funds?

Citadel and other giant funds have remade public markets

An illustration of  a briefcase burt open with arms reaching out holding bunches of banknotes.
Illustration: Daniel Jurman
|8 min read

Ken Griffin was stunned. It was March 10th and America’s markets had suddenly fallen out of love with Donald Trump. The NASDAQ index fell by 4%. Citadel, Mr Griffin’s hedge fund, had lost money in the rout. “You have to tear apart and re-examine the portfolio,” he told The Economist after markets closed. “And ask yourself in what ways we have positioned or mispositioned ourselves against the reality that the odds of a recession have gone higher.”

This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “Calculated risk”

From the May 31st 2025 edition

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