About 3/4 Of Hedge Funds Lost Money In January

The stat above came from today's NY Times. It was a quote from an article titled, "Bad Bets and Accounting Flaws Bring Staggering Losses" and is about losses in the financial industry but particularly hedge funds. The article points out that all types of hedge funds are struggling this year. Whether the fund is Long/Short, Long only, Short only, overseas, or other, the fund is likely to be under water. I am not sure of the historical precedence of a stat like that, but I do know that the US equity markets have had one of the worst starts ever. What I find particularly interesting is that even the equity short funds are suffering. It seems that the market's violent turns are wreaking havoc even if you happened to be short the market. Even the great Goldman Sachs has not come out unscathed. According to the article the approximate $7 billion Goldman Sachs Partner Fund was down 6% in January. If the risk managers that Goldman's Partners hire to run their money are down 6% in a month, then you know that things are really tough out there.