Hedge funds feel the pain

Hedge funds are having their worst start to the year on record after March turned into one of the ugliest months for popular strategies and several funds imploded. Daily data from Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research showed that, with two trading days to go, the average fund tracked by its HFRX index was down 2.4% in March, its worst month since the collapse of LTCM in 1998. January was also a very poor month for the industry, only partially offset by February’s recovery. The dire March performance follows disastrous results from many big and highly-geared relative value traders.