Hedge Funds Are Sticking to Time-Tested Blueprint for a Rattled Stock Market
- Goldman clients buying more single stocks than they’re selling
- Most-crowded stocks holding up well during market sell-off
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The minute-to-minute news cycle inaugurated two Sundays ago with President Donald Trump’s trade salvos hasn’t chased hedge funds from the market. But it has prompted them to redouble defensive measures.
Gross leverage, a measure of industry risk appetite, rose last week to the highest level since early October as hedge funds boosted bets against stocks through vehicles such as index options, data compiled by Morgan Stanley’s prime brokerage unit showed. At Goldman Sachs, fund clients increased short sales through exchange-traded funds while snapping up single stocks.