The hedge fund pain isn't stopping as investors yank more assets

Shutterstock/Anton-Burakov

More investors are redeeming from hedge funds, according to an eVestment report released on Wednesday.

Investors pulled about $10.3 billion from hedge funds last month, bringing the net total of the amount investors have yanked this year to $60 billion, the report said.

What's more, last quarter's redemptions were the largest since the first quarter of 2009.

To be fair, the cumulative redemptions in the past year –  $87 billion – are less than half the amount in that crisis quarter. And the redemptions as a whole are just a small mark on the industry, which is considered to manage about $3 trillion.

But the high redemptions also signal a worrying trend, the report said:

"Public financial markets are generally not operating as if we are in the midst of a crisis period, which means the current flow trends are more emblematic of an industry in crisis....Even the industry’s best performing segments, distressed and event driven, continue to be beset by redemptions." 

Hedge funds have faced a rough patch for some time, criticized for their relatively high fees and underwhelming performance. Managers have blamed poor returns on a number of market issues, while some managers are advocating would-be managers to steer clear of the business altogether.

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