Disaster Capitalists@Work: Hedging On Super El Niño
S. E. Anderson
By Gautam Naik
9.18.2026
A former Balyasny Asset Management trader who now runs a boutique hedge fund in London says he expects to be able to amplify returns by anticipating how an evolving super El Niño will affect markets.
The cyclical climate phenomenon associated with warming across the equatorial Pacific Ocean is already reshaping weather patterns across the globe. Zulfiqar Ali, founder and chief investment officer of energy commodities trading hedge fund ZAMS Asset Management, says that as El Niño gets “stronger and stronger,” his fund “is positioned to take advantage of dislocations as they happen, with a quick turnaround.”
More opportunities are likely to emerge toward the end of the year, when El Niño is expected to produce an “unusually alpha-rich environment,” he said. So far, the strategy helped ZAMS deliver its clients a 5.7% return in August and 13% year-to-date.
The 34-year-old Cambridge University mathematics graduate says he and his team of half a dozen traders, quants and weather strategists have been analyzing energy futures contracts and weather models to find price anomalies. ZAMS buys climate models from specialist weather-forecasting companies like MetDesk, and then tries to improve on them using in-house expertise.
It’s an idea that’s gaining traction. Bloomberg reported in June that Moreton Capital Partners is targeting $500 million to bet on all the ways in which El Niño will upend food prices. At Man Group, the world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund firm, the assessment is that the full range of contagion risks associated with El Niño has yet to be priced in. ///
s. e. anderson
author of The Black Holocaust for Beginners
"If WORK was good for you, the rich would leave none for the poor." (Haiti)
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