In the week that hedge fund assets under management broke the $1 trillion barrier, Hedge Fund Research, the index provider, served up a less appetising piece of news for the sector. Every hedge fund style within the HFR indices fell in value over the five-day trading period.

Its long/short equity index performed particularly badly, falling 1.75%, and relative value arbitrage was down 1.36%. Merger arbitrage fell only marginally by 0.04%. Nevertheless, a universal drop is rare, even in a single week. It is also worrying, given that the month of April produced falls for most styles.