Others in the industry have been less fortunate. Analysts warn that global hedge funds are facing the biggest bloodbath since their rapid expansion in the early 1990s, especially in Britain, where about half of 2,000 firms are expected to be taken over by larger rivals or liquidated.

But don't expect the funds to shout from the rooftops about their travails. They are notoriously secretive, preferring to work quietly in a sector conservatively estimated to account for around $2trn at the height of the boom.