December is almost done, as if 2018, and the latter is shaping up as the worst for most quant, CTA and managed futures funds. And not only: a quick look at the best and worst performers so far in 2018 shows a distinct skew to the downside, with one clear exception: Odey's 51.5% YTD return is almost twice as good as the second-best performing fund of 2018 according to HSBC.

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In this momentum-less, directionless market, by far the worst hit were the various quant, stat-arb, momentum, and trend following funds: here the bloodbath was almost unprecedented as the following snapshot of quant/systematic/managed futures funds in the latest HSBC report demonstrates.

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And here is our usual universe of some of the most recognizable, marquee hedge fund names, sorted by YTD performance. It is clear that almost none of the "hedge" funds was hedged for the events that took place in Q4.

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