Short funds’ moment in the sun is over

It’s no surprise that dedicated short bias (DSB) funds performed spectacularly through the financial panic triggered by the coronavirus crisis. Most, though, gave up these gains in the weeks since the bear market’s nadir, and only a handful were up for the year by May 31.

Risk Quantum analysed returns data on almost 27,000 US mutual and exchange-traded funds provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Between February 12 and March 23, at the height of the coronavirus panic, funds using a DSB strategy