Who are the Major Hedge Fund Pods?
- Peak Frameworks Team
- Sep 24
- 4 min read
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Overview
The hedge funds with the highest AUMs today employ what is known as the "pod" or "multi-manager" model. Pods are fund platforms that allocate their investors' capital to a large number of portfolio managers, which each have investment discretion.
Each pod effectively functions as a self-contained business unit which trades based on its own research and strategy and manages its own P&L. Pods invest across different asset classes, industries, and geographies. In contrast, a traditional long/short equity hedge fund might focus on a single category and be run by a single hedge fund manager.
A pod would still benefit from being attached to a larger firm which provides them with better resources and other benefits such as more robust infrastructure for risk management.
This post highlights the largest pod shops in the U.S. Many prominent hedge fund founders spent a lot of time at the largest multi-manager platforms.
Many analysts look at multi-managers as a great training ground to understand how to run risk, manage teams, and sometimes operate within tight performance controls (some platforms are stricter than others) before taking the leap to start their own funds.
Millennium Management, LLC
AUM: ~$79 billion (September 2025)
Founder: Israel Englander Headquarters: New York, New York
Headcount: 6,300+ employees globally, 320+ investment teams
Recent performance: 4.4% YTD as of August 2025, 15.0% in 2024 and ~10% in 2023
Millennium is a multi-strategy hedge fund which pursues investments through strategies in fundamental equity, equity arbitrage, fixed income, commodities, and quantitative strategies.
As of September 2025, Millennium is the largest multi-manager pod shop in the U.S. with AUM of ~$79 billion. Israel Englander founded the firm in 1989 with $35 million. Paul Russo and Justin Gmelich are Co-CIOs of the firm.
Paul Russo joined from Goldman Sachs where he was an executive in the firm's Equities business. Justin Gmelich also joined from Goldman Sachs where he was the Chief Operating Officer for the Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities business.
Citadel LLC
AUM: $65 billion (January 2025)
Founder: Ken Griffin
Headquarters: Miami, Florida
Headcount: ~3,000+
Recent Performance: Citadel's flagship Wellington fund returned 2.5% in H1 2025 (net of fees), 15.1% in 2024, and ~15% in 2023.
Citadel's investments fall under five main strategies: Commodities, Credit & Convertibles, Equities, Fixed Income & Macro, and Global Quantitative Strategies. Citadel is known for its intense, performance-driven culture that emphasizes meritocracy and demands consistent results from its investment teams.
Ken Griffin founded Citadel in 1990 and is the current CEO and Co-CIO alongside Pablo Salame. Pablo Salame joined Citadel in 2019 from Goldman Sachs where he served as Vice Chairman of the firm and Co-Head of the Global Markets Division.
Point72 Asset Management
AUM: $39.9 billion (As of 7/1/25 in the firm's multi-strategy funds)
Founder: Steve Cohen
Headquarters: Stamford, Connecticut
Headcount: 2,900+, 190+ investment teams
Point72 invests through four subsidiaries. Point72 and Everpoint are multi-manager platforms that focus on long/short equity investing. Cubist Systematic Strategies is made up of dozens of investment teams that implement computer-driven trading strategies. Point72 Private Investments focuses on venture capital and growth equity investing.
Steve Cohen founded S.A.C. Capital Advisors in 1992 and converted the company's investment operations to the Point72 Asset Management family office in 2014, later accepting outside capital in 2018.
Notable employees include Harry Schwefel who is the Co-CIO (reporting to founder Steve Cohen) and was a PM at the firm trading stocks in the Consumer, Industrial, and Technology sectors. He previously worked at Magnetar Capital where he was a PM.
Balyasny Asset Management
AUM: $28 billion
Founder: Dmitry Balyasny
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Headcount: 1,800+ investment team professionals
Recent Performance: 8.6% YTD through August 2025, 13.6% in 2024, 15.2% gross in 2023 (2.8% after pass-through fees).
Balyasny was founded by Dmitry Balyasny in 2001. It invests following five main strategies: Long/Short equities, Fixed Income & Macro, Commodities, Multi-Asset Arbitrage, and Systematic (which leverages mathematical models and quantitative analysts to trade).
Francine Fang was deputy head of Steve Cohen's quant fund Cubist Investment Strategies, LLC, and is currently the global head of Balyasny's Systematic business. Steven Goldberg, who is the firm's global head of Fixed Income and Macro joined Balyasny from Citadel in 2021, where he was a PM and Partner at Citadel's Global Fixed Income Business.
Gappy Paleologo, who is the global head of Quantitative Research, joined from Hudson River Trading, and previously spent time as the head of Enterprise Risk at Millennium, and as the director of Equities Quantitative Research at Citadel.
ExodusPoint
AUM: $11 billion (March 2025)
Founder: Michael Gelband
Headquarters: New York, New York
Recent Performance: 10.3% YTD through August 2025, 11% in 2024 (after charging 8.4% in pass-through fees)
Michael Gelband, who was the former Head of Fixed Income at Millennium, founded ExodusPoint in 2017 with Hyung Soon Lee who was the Head of Equities at Millennium.
Other notable employees include Kunal Kumar who is the Chief Risk Officer having joined in 2023 from Balyasny as the Co-Head of Global Macro Risk and Risk Advisory.
In its Equities business, ExodusPoint pursues strategies focused on Fundamental research, Statistical Arbitrage & Systematic (diversified systematic strategies that operate across asset classes, as well as mid-frequency statistical arbitrage strategies) and Quantitative Arbitrage (captures anomalies due to passive market flows including index rebalancing and opportunities resulting from hard catalyst events such as IPOs, spin-offs, and share class arbitrage).
In Fixed Income, the fund's strategies focus on Rates (bond, swap and futures markets), Credit (fundamental long/short, credit index and options), and Emerging Markets & Macro.
Summary
Large hedge funds have embraced the "pod shop" model, where sometimes hundreds of portfolio managers effectively operate independent business units under the broader firm. These pods run their own P&L while benefitting from the infrastructure, resources, and risk management of the larger firm. These firms have also been the training grounds for many influential investors that have gone on to hold executive positions in other firms, or start their own ventures.
