... today we got confirmation of just that, when the latest eVestment Hedge Fund Asset Flow report indicated that investors had removed an estimated $14.72 billion from hedge funds in September pushing Q3 net flows into negative territory with an estimated $5.71 billion leaving the industry in Q3. As a result of September's spike in outflows, year-to-date net flows are now flat after being stubbornly in the green for much of the year despite what has been another deplorable performance year for hedge funds. As as result, on September 30, total industry assets sit at $3.310 trillion.

And while the overall hedge fund industry is still growing, it's not growing from new allocations. Over the last three years,  investors have removed over $100 billion from the industry, but performance gains have offset these losses, at least until now: overall asset increases cannot hide the fact that over the last twelve quarters, investors have been net redeemers in eight of them. Growth is stagnant, and returns have not been making an impact on investors to broadly return, especially since they have been largely negative.