Together with the non-profit academic research centre, CISDM (Center for International Securities and Derivatives Markets) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Casam also estimates that the total number of hedge funds has declined from over 9,700 at the end of 2007 to around 8,900.

In terms of assets under management, convertible arbitrage funds suffered the largest decline with assets plummeting over 52 per cent, followed closely by emerging market funds with a drop of 51 per cent.

Excluding CTAs, the only hedge fund strategy to increase assets in 2008 was global macro, with a total increase of USD28bn or 13 per cent.

In the worst year on record for the industry, hedge funds as a whole, excluding CTAs, posted a negative performance of -19.2 per cent for 2008, with those invested in emerging markets posting the lowest results at -34.3 per cent.

Global macro managers achieved positive performance of 3.7 per cent, while equity market neutral and merger arbitrage managers remained flat for the year.

CTAs as a whole posted a performance gain of 21.8 per cent on an equal weighted basis, making 2008 the best year on record since 2002.

Assets managed by CTAs are estimated at USD150bn, an increase of approximately 20 per cent in the last 12 months.

The return for funds of funds overall in 2008 was similar to that for hedge funds at -17.0 per cent.