KEY POINTS:
Lights flicker and numbers flash up on small dials at the front of two computer servers nicknamed Meg Ryan and Jamie Lee Curtis by traders at the London headquarters of hedge fund giant Man Group.
The shiny new technology is part of the nerve centre of AHL, one
of Man's most successful hedge funds, which has notched up returns of 7 per cent in the past month alone, despite the financial turmoil.
Others in the industry have been less fortunate. Analysts warn that global hedge funds are facing the biggest bloodbath since their rapid expansion in the early 1990s, and no more so than in Britain, where around half of 2000 firms are expected to be taken over by larger rivals or liquidated.
But don't expect the funds to shout from the rooftops about their demise. They are notoriously secretive, preferring to work quietly in a sector conservatively estimated to account for around US$2 trillion ($3.4 trillion) at the height of the boom.
Unlike Man, most hedge funds are not public companies and many are registered abroad, and so do not have to tell us very much about their operations. Suffice to say that they take huge bets on the future direction of interest rates, currencies, commodities, bonds and shares.
But talk in the City - London's financial district - is about how massive hedge fund redemptions are helping to push world stock markets to new depths as investors bail out in a desperate bid to turn their money into hard cash. One industry insider says: "Some have already ceased to exist as nervous investors sell and highly leveraged funds face margin calls from banks, which want more collateral to take account of plummeting values."
As banks scream for cash, the funds sell more assets, setting up a vicious selling spiral that has added to the mayhem on stock markets.
Sipping wine at a restaurant in the heart of Mayfair, the very smart central London neighbourhood where many hedge funds are based, a senior trader said: "It's been another torrid week. Some of us aren't going to survive and that is going to be difficult for colleagues and friends with big mortgages and private school fees to pay. A lot are desperate."
While his comments won't elicit sympathy from many people outside his opaque financial world, property agents expect a glut of office space to come on to the market in central London as hedge funds vacate plush, well-appointed, air-conditioned premises.
The prospect of meltdown in the industry was highlighted by Emmanuel Roman, the co-chief executive of hedge fund group GLG, who said that 25-30 per cent of the world's 8000 hedge funds would disappear "in a Darwinian process", either going bust or deciding meagre profits are not worth their efforts.
His view was echoed by Professor Nouriel Roubini, a former US Treasury and presidential adviser, who estimated that up to 500 hedge funds would fail within months.
While Man and other large, well-managed groups can weather the storm, smaller operators have borrowed heavily to finance risky investments, and these are the ones under mounting pressure from the banks.
They employ few people but have been able to afford the huge rents charged in London's West End during the credit boom, during which they got used to a whopping 20 per cent performance fee on annual profits.
That compares with 1 or 2 per cent charged by the conventional fund management industry, which directs investments for pension funds and insurers.
The ban on the short-selling of shares in many of Britain's major financial institutions has added to the woes of the hedge funds, many of which profited during the early stages of the market slump when share prices were still relatively high.
Now, things are different. An analyst says: "The industry has enjoyed the good times, but now that the wind has changed the weak will go the wall, just as in every other area of British commercial life."
Some big names are also in trouble: in Britain, Martin Hughes' Tosca Fund has slumped around 30 per cent as investments in shares of financials and housebuilders have been hit.
Hedge funds delivered their worst performance on record in September: globally, their value declined 5 per cent against the previous month. All this from an industry which has boasted that it can buck the market, no matter what the trading climate. How hollow that claim rings today.
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