Hedge fund investors haven't had it this good since the aftermath of the financial crisis. Data compiled by industry tracker Hedge Fund Research showing that the industry posted its best year since 2009, with gains of about 12.6%.

Hedge funds delivered strong returns in 2025, benefiting from volatile markets, uncertainty around artificial intelligence, geopolitical tensions, and fluctuating interest rates. These conditions created trading opportunities that led to steady gains across various hedge fund strategies and sizes.

While the S&P 500 also posted double-digit returns, hedge fund performance varied depending on individual strategies and benchmarks. The industry saw increased investment flows as private equity struggled, though raising new capital from traditional sources became more difficult, prompting fund managers to seek alternative investors.

Data shows hedge funds thrived in 2025

What was the thing that fueled this industry for such a good year. So there were many things all coming together. You're looking at just a really volatile markets. The good kind of volatility where there is a lot of unpredictable unpredictability in this space. You don't know what's happening around AI technology. You have geopolitical tensions. You have wars in the Middle East. You have interest rate uncertainty. So all of these things create these ebbs and flows in the market that provide trading opportunity for funds to wager around. And so as you've seen a lot of funds made a lot of money. We have pretty much steady steady gains across all strategies across all sizes. And so it's been one of the best years to be a hedge fund trader. Is it. You know I was reading about the returns earlier and there was a lot of excitement around double digit returns. But the S&P also made double digit returns. It was the benchmark index is up 17 percent. Is it necessarily then easier for these women and men hedge funds to make good returns when the overall market is up as well or is that not correlate. So sometimes the lifting tide raises all boats. But when you look at hedge funds they really should be a making alpha which is beating the markets in some ways depending on the strategy. But really it's creating. And that's important. I don't know because they're not all benchmarked to the S&P. Right. Exactly. You may have a strategy that was only up 5 percent or you may have a strategy that was down. Exactly. So it really depends on the strategy. And does a strategy bank benchmark themselves against which indices indices. So when you look at that that's important. You also want to look at how people use hedge funds and they use them oftentimes to hedge against a down market to hedge against when things are not doing well to diversify your portfolio. So you don't have just long stock exposure. So again that's why strategies matter. Are you in a long tech hedge funds where you do sort of look at the S&P maybe a little bit more closely and where maybe the tech positions track it more. Or are you looking at some sort of more nuanced credit hedge fund that's doing things that are different where if there is a down market the fund should protect against that and make you money so that your portfolio is a little bit safer. Does it help them that when you look at other things one might compare hedge funds to in the alts bucket that private equity hasn't done as well that they've been struggling to exit that they're not giving money back. Does that also give this industry a lift. It does because in some ways you are seeing flows move back into hedge funds as with concerns over private equity. But on the other hand the biggest allocators are still stuck in private equity. And so what that means is they don't have as many dollars to put to work in hedge funds as they did before when they would get these distributions from private equity that they could then reinvest into different things. So in some ways it's harder because if you are a fund manager out there raising money you're looking to retail investors. Maybe you're looking to Middle East sovereigns to raise additional cash rather than the traditional pensions and damage foundations where it's a lot harder than it would have been otherwise.

Analysts say the discussions could be pivotal in clarifying U.S. intentions, easing tensions and reinforcing commitments to Greenland’s sovereignty in the face of strategic interests from Washington.

Washington

Denmark and Greenland ministers to meet Rubio and Vance at White House

Former Corsican nationalist leader Alain Orsoni, who also served as the president of soccer club AC Ajaccio, was shot dead in Corsica on January 11 during his mother’s funeral. He was 71. Alain Orsoni was one of the leaders of the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC) in the 1980s. He later founded and led the Movement for Self-Determination (MPA).

Vero

Ex-Corsican nationalist leader Alain Orsoni killed at mother's funeral

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who needs to have a graft conviction overturned to seize her best chance at the French presidency, risks seeing her life's work upended if she loses her appeal. It comes after a French court last year barred her from running for office for five years over a European Parliament fake-jobs scam involving her and other officials from her National Rally party.

Paris

Marine Le Pen's appeal in EU fund embezzlement case opens in Paris

British regulators are investigating X for lewd AI images generated by Grok, the AI arm of Elon Musk's social platform. Michael Goodyear, an associate professor at New York Law School, joins CBS News with more.

London

UK investigating Musk's X over Grok's AI-generated images

As U.S. President Donald Trump weighs a response to Iran's deadly crackdown on nationwide protests, Iranian leaders say they are still keeping communications open with the Americans. But on January 12, large pro-government rallies took place across Iran, and the U.S. was clearly framed as the enemy and instigator of the protests.

Tehran

Iranian leaders mobilise supporters as U.S. weighs intervention

Last week an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent shot and killed Renee Good, a Minneapolis mother who was observing a law enforcement action carried out by the agency.

Minnesota

Minnesota sues federal government to prevent further ICE deployment

The demonstrations are the biggest Iran has seen in years. Protests spurred by the Iranian currency collapse have morphed into a larger test of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's rule.

Trump weighs military action against Iran over protest crackdown

President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to safeguard Mexican sovereignty while cooperating with the US on key issues.

Mexico City

Mexico’s Sheinbaum rejects Trump’s threat of strikes on drug cartels

President Donald Trump said that any country which does business with Iran will face a tariff rate of 25% on trade with the U.S., as Washington weighs a response to the situation in Iran which is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years.

Trump says nations trading with Iran will face 25% U.S. tariffs

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says his country is ready for war but also for dialogue, after US President Donald Trump said the US is considering ‘very strong options’ in response to Iran’s crackdown on antigovernment protests.

Iran FM Araghchi warns ready for war if U.S. wants to ‘test’ it

Britain will bring into effect a law criminalizing the creation of non-consensual intimate images this week, technology minister Liz Kendall told parliament after regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into Elon Musk's X.

UK investigates Musk's X over Grok sexual deepfakes

Iran's internet was cut off late last Thursday, apparently in an attempt by government authorities to prevent protesters from organizing and uploading videos for the outside world to see.

Iran enforcing nationwide internet blackout amid protests

Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk's company xAI, amid concerns that it is being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images.

Malaysia and Indonesia block Musk’s Grok over sexualized AI images

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has welcomed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is on a two-day visit. Merz is traveling with a large business delegation as Germany seeks to deepen economic and security ties.

New Delhi

Germany's Merz makes first official visit to India

At the first major awards show of the season, "One Battle After Another" and "Adolescence" both won four awards. In a surprise win, "Hamnet" upset "Sinners" for best motion picture for a drama.

Los Angeles

"One Battle After Another," "Adolescence" win big at Golden Globes

Fallout from the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a U.S. immigration and customs enforcement officer in Minneapolis continues with government officials standing by the action and ordering more ICE officers into the city.

Minneapolis

Hundreds more ICE agents headed to Minneapolis after fatal shooting

Powell said the investigation, linked to a testimony he gave to a Senate committee about renovations to Fed buildings, was an attempt to limit central bank independence.

U.S. opens criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell

Protests continue in Iran amid a violent government crackdown. Activists say hundreds of demonstrators have been killed. President Trump says Iran now wants to negotiate to prevent a U.S. military response.

Trump says Iran 'wants to negotiate' as protests intensify

President Trump says Iranian leaders have reached out to the U.S. to negotiate, as massive protests continue and more deaths are reported by activists.

Trump weighs military option in Iran amid rising death toll

President Trump has been briefed on new military options for a strike against Iran amid widespread protests and a government crackdown on communications for Iranians, a senior U.S. official tells CBS News. "We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts," he said at the White House.

Trump briefed on new military options for Iran strikes amid protests

Demonstrations in Iran are now entering their third week and the death toll is surging with hundreds killed, according to a human rights group. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted that the Islamic regime will "not back down" in the face of the growing social unrest and calls for regime change.

Protests in Iran intensifying despite threat of death for dissidents

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showcased a wide array of AI-powered innovations, including paper-thin televisions, interactive Lego, and binoculars that can identify bird species in real time. Notable breakthroughs included .Lumen's AI glasses for the visually impaired and Roborock's Saros Rover, a robotic vacuum cleaner capable of navigating stairs and various surfaces autonomously.

Las Vegas

Rise of AI

AI-powered innovation dominates Consumer Electronics show

Human remains were found in Australia's southeast where bushfires raging for days have razed buildings, cut power to thousands of homes and burned swaths of bushland, police said. The blazes are burning out of control during a summer heat wave in Victoria state.

Victoria

'Gut-wrenching': Australian bushfires expected to burn for weeks

Anti-government protests in Iran show no sign of stopping. Human rights groups are putting the death toll at 116 with 2600 detained. U.S. President Donald Trump has reaffirmed U.S. support for the protesters.

Protests in Iran defy government crackdown

Iran's army is threatening to join the crackdown on protesters as demonstrations against the regime grow and the death toll mounts. Huge crowds have taken to the streets across the Islamic Republic. Iran's Revolutionary Guard calls them "terrorists." Haley Ott has more details.

Iran's army threatens to join crackdown against protesters

President Trump said, "We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not," earlier this week. But Greenland, a territory of Denmark and a NATO ally, is rejecting the threats.

Nuuk

Greenland rejects Trump's threats

Trump, who often cites national security interests as the reason for taking Greenland, said that if the US does not do something, 'Russia or China will take over Greenland'.

Trump says U.S will act on Greenland, 'whether they like it or not'

Protests across the U.S., including in Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Miami, are taking place following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Police declared the demonstrations in downtown Minneapolis an 'unlawful assembly'.

Philadelphia

Protests spread across the U.S. over ICE shooting of woman

Internet and phone lines in Iran have been cut off as anti-government protests enter their second week. Reports say at least 65 people have been killed and more than 2,300 others detained. U.S. President Donald Trump has warned of a possible U.S. response to the government crackdown.

Internet blackout in Iran enters second day as protests intensify

Rescue workers are trying to find dozens of people trapped under a collapsed landfill in the Philippines. At least four people have been confirmed dead. The incident took place on Thursday, with more than 100 workers on site at the time.

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