Bloomberg News

Thu, May 29, 2025, 9:00 PM3 min read

(Bloomberg) -- A Chinese hedge fund that bought the dip in April when the nation’s stocks plunged on fresh US tariffs has jumped 20% this year, extending its total return since inception a decade ago to 1,485%.

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Evolution Asset Management founder and Chief Executive Officer Wang Yiping pledged on social media in early April to bottom-fish China assets, even as investor angst grew over the escalating trade war. The move paid off, underscoring the advantages of combining human judgment with computer algorithms during wild market swings.

“Our confidence to buy the dip at the time came from the analytical framework we consistently emphasized — one that combines data with logic,” Wang said in a statement to Bloomberg News. “Whether viewed from the perspective of odds or probability, adding allocations to Chinese assets was a rational choice.”

Evolution Asset, which Wang set up in 2014 as a discretionary hedge fund that now manages about 13 billion yuan ($1.8 billion), has switched most of its assets into quantitative products, seeking greater efficiency and stability from computer models. The mixed-strategy fund accounts for about 40% of assets under management.

After US President Donald Trump’s announcement of so-called reciprocal tariffs sent global stocks tumbling, Wang said April 4 on his Weibo social media account that he would buy at least 500 million yuan of China-related assets with cash in his discretionary funds. He said he wouldn’t buy “a single penny” of US assets.

As China markets slumped on April 7 when trading resumed after a holiday, Wang said he would buy core China assets like consumer stocks on the mainland and Hong Kong-listed internet firms. He declared the next day he’d filled up all positions.

“If China and the US truly halted trade relations, China will undoubtedly prove more resilient,” Wang said in his written reply, citing the nation’s manufacturing prowess.

Evolution’s Multi-Strategy No. 1’s 19.6% gain this year through May 23 extended the total since inception in March 2015 to 1,485%, according to data tracked by Shenzhen PaiPaiWang Investment & Management Co. It’s the top-ranked fund over the past 10 years through April 30, the data show. The fund, which is a combination of quant and discretionary strategies, was the third-best long-only stock fund among firms managing more than 10 billion yuan for the first four months of the year, with a 15% gain.