Michael Platt’s bet against US dollar helps drive BlueCrest to 28% gain

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

BlueCrest Capital Management, the hedge fund turned family office founded by billionaire Michael Platt, has gained more than 28 per cent this year after betting on a weakening US dollar.

Platt is bearish on the US currency on a long-term basis and has been positioned accordingly since President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff blitz at the beginning of April, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The announcement triggered further declines for the dollar, which has lost nearly 9 per cent this year as investors worry about the economic fallout from the president’s stop-start trade war.

Moody’s recent downgrade to the US credit rating and Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill have fuelled concerns about the sustainability of America’s debt, adding to the pressure on US Treasuries.

This year’s bet against the US currency has been a core position for BlueCrest.

It was hard to see the trend in the dollar reversing before the US midterm elections in November next year, barring a major macro event such as China invading Taiwan, said one of the people familiar with BlueCrest’s performance. “It does feel like this trade probably continues for a while,” they said.

BlueCrest was once one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, but after a period of poor performance and investor withdrawals in the early 2010s, Platt returned capital to investors and opted to convert the firm into a family office in 2015. 

Since then, it has frequently notched up big gains. BlueCrest declined to comment.

The group employs 550 people globally across the organisation, including 150 independent trading teams overseen by Platt, across bonds, currencies, commodities and systematic strategies. It has about $5bn in capital and uses leverage to magnify its positions and to boost returns. 

BlueCrest continues to hire aggressively, according to a second person familiar with the business, and notably is scaling up its presence in Dubai, where it recently received full regulatory approval to operate. The firm is known for paying its traders some of the largest profit shares in the hedge fund industry.