That's how Citi's iconic credit strategist Matt King begins his latest report, starting with a chart we have shown previously, namely that total returns across most asset classes in 2015 were downright miserable - "near zero or worse" - and that as a result the active manager comunity was humiliated to a degree not seen since 2008, especially in the high yield space, where as we know, several liquidating mutual and hedge funds were forced to gate over the past month.

Which brings us to the question every hedge funder, and especially their investors, have been asking themselves: "why did active managers struggle so much." 

King's answer is twofold: on one hand contrarian strategies did not work, while on the other momentum strategies were often stopped out.