By Lawrence Delevingne and Carolina Mandl BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a money manager, Scott Bessent's years of inconsistent performance have contributed to a nearly 90% decline in his hedge fund's assets. Now, with some clients gone, he is scoring on perhaps his biggest bet yet: President-elect Donald Trump. Bessent spotted what he called an anomaly in the market: that political and market analysts were too negative on what a Trump victory would mean, according to a letter to clients in January seen by Reuters.
His Key Square Capital Management put on bets that U.S. stocks and the dollar would gain, helping earn a double-digit percentage profit so far in 2024, with November as its best month, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Bessent's even bigger wager is on Trump, the future president. He's been a donor, economic adviser and booster on TV to Trump, and Bessent is now seen as a likely candidate for a top economic role in the administration, such as running the U.S.
Treasury Department or leading the White House National Economic Council. Trump has talked Bessent up as “one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street." Details of his fund's performance, reported here for the first time, show a mixed track record in the decade since he launched his own hedge fund firm.
Ted Seides, the former president of Protege Partners, an investment firm where Bessent earned strong returns in the late 2000s, told Reuters that Bessent's track record should be taken in the.
