Investors Pull $43B From Hedge Funds In Sept.

Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008
Author: FINalternatives

No news is good news for hedge funds these days, but everyday brings more news. The latest instance of unpleasant information for the industry are the enormous withdrawals suffered by hedge funds in September.

Hedge fund indices have already shown last month to be among the worst ever in terms of performance; the latest TrimTabs Investment Research data shows it was just as bad—if not worse—in terms of clients fleeing. Investors yanked at least $43 billion from U.S. hedge funds in September, and TrimTabs says worse is still to come.

September’s withdrawals are “the beginning of what we expect to be a series of outflows for the remainder of the year,” TrimTabs’ Conrad Gunn told the Financial Times. “We expect October outflows to be larger.”

Of course, it isn’t totally clear just how bad September was yet. Gunn, the firm’s chief operating officer, said the $43 billion figure was preliminary, and is likely to grow as more funds report their outflows.