The race for the title of best-performing Nordic hedge fund in 2025 went down to the wire, culminating in one of the closest finishes the industry has seen in recent memory. In the end, Atlas Global Macro, the theme-driven global macro fund led by Lars Tvede, edged out Coda Global Opportunities, led by Sector co-founder Peter Andersland, by just a few basis points. Completing the podium, TIND Discovery Fund secured third place, translating its Rookie of the Year recognition at the Nordic Hedge Award into a strong follow-through performance.
Last year’s top-ten ranking was dominated by Norwegian and Danish managers, with one Finnish fund also making the list. While Norwegian hedge funds delivered the strongest aggregate performance in 2025, posting an average gain of 14 percent, Danish hedge funds followed with an average return of 9.3 percent. Despite this, it was Danish-originating Atlas Global Macro that claimed the top spot, advancing 39.24 percent for the year, narrowly ahead of Coda Global Opportunities at 39.16 percent.
After several challenging years following its launch in May 2021, Atlas Global Macro delivered a decisive turnaround in 2025. While performance drivers were broad-based during the year for the global macro fund led by Lars Tvede, exposure to the early phase of the commodity bull market stood out as a particularly important contributor to returns. Atlas Global Macro’s strong performance was also supported by a contrarian macro stance, including adding exposure during periods of heightened market stress in the spring, and selective positioning in areas such as long-duration U.S. Treasuries, Greek banks, Asian equities, and Chinese stocks that were widely considered uninvestable at the start of the year.
Coda Global Opportunities finished just a few basis points behind, posting a return of 39.16 percent for 2025. Notably, the opportunistic hedge fund recorded a negative correlation of 0.09 and a beta of minus 0.10 to the S&P 500 over the full year, highlighting its low sensitivity to equity markets. Andersland, who had previously managed Pensum Global Opportunities under the Pensum Asset Management umbrella since 2022, established Coda Partners in 2025 and rebranded the fund as Coda Global Opportunities in November.
TIND Discovery Fund, a long-biased equity hedge fund focused on small- and mid-cap stocks, rounded out the top three with a return of 36.6 percent in 2025. Launched in November 2023, the fund was named Rookie of the Year at the 2024 Nordic Hedge Award and has built a strong performance track record since inception. Managed by CIO Harald Hjorthen and Portfolio Manager Jon Håkon Findreng, the fund gained 35 percent in its first full year of operations in 2024, followed by an even stronger showing in 2025.
Further down the ranking, Finnish multi-strategy fund HCP Black emerged as the sole Finnish representative among a list otherwise dominated by Norwegian and Danish managers, delivering a return of around 28 percent. The remainder of the top ten included two Danish fixed-income hedge funds and four Norwegian equity hedge funds. Nykredit MIRA Hedge Fund gained 25.9 percent, followed closely by Nordea Global Rates Opportunity Fund with a return of 25.2 percent. Japan-focused equity fund Sector Zen advanced 23.3 percent, while shipping-focused Cleaves Shipping Fund, soon to be renamed Agmentum Maritime, gained approximately 23 percent. Rounding out the list, Norwegian equity hedge funds Sissener Canopus and Taiga Fund delivered returns of 22.8 percent and 22.5 percent, respectively.
