What next for hedge funds in energy?

Until recently, energy and commodities had seen a steady increase in investor interest, marked by a surge of new specialist hedge funds being launched.

According to fund analysis and research company, Lipper FMI, the number of equity raw material/energy funds increased by 47% from January 2007 to January 2009, whereas the number of overall derivatives funds increased by 15% over the same period.

Since the end of January this year, this sentiment appears to have changed and investors have been