Reuters / Lucas Jackson

The top-performing hedge fund of 2019 has skyrocketed 278% since the start of the year, according to Bloomberg.

The Singapore-based Vanda Global Fund, which is run by Chong Chin Eai and manages about $194 million, specializes in exchange-traded futures that track commodities, equities, and government bonds.

Futures are typically considered a more risky investment compared to purchasing a share of stock or a corporate bond, as they involve a contract to buy or sell shares of an underlying security at an agreed-upon price or specific date in the future. Exchange-traded futures are a form of derivatives based on existing ETFs, which typically track a basket of assets like stocks or bonds.

The volatility of investing in futures can been seen in Vanda's returns for the past two years. Vanda rose 260% in 2017, but fell 49% in 2018, according to Bloomberg.

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Chong started the fund about three years ago with $24 million from friends and family, Bloomberg reported. The fund cratered 50% after Donald Trump's presidential victory rocked the stock market in late-2016, and Chong contemplated closing the firm and dipping into his own personal savings to recuperate his investors' losses.

"A lot of fund managers would've just given up after six months to start a brand new track record," Chong told Bloomberg. "But I wanted to show investors the flow of the fund and the growth of the fund, both in terms of the performance and also in myself."

Vanda has between 10 and 15 investors, and is looking to raise an additional $20 million in capital over the next year, Bloomberg reported. Investors who chip in more than $1 million will have to pay a 2% management fee and a 20% performance fee. For those that invest the minimum of $250,000, the cost rises slightly to a 2.5% subscription fee and a 25% performance fee.

In an effort to hedge against the risk of investing in ETF futures, Chong puts half of the fund into highly-liquid money market investments that yield a small interest rate.

The firm trades on Swiss-Asia Asset Management's fund management platform.

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