On the trading floor of one of London's big hedge funds, the banks of Bloomberg screens still flicker with life but the traders are almost silent. "None of us can quite believe what we are seeing," says a senior manager. A year ago hedge funds were the omnipotent vanguard of financial capitalism. They were uncompromising in their search for returns, and they dominated trading activity in most securities. But the industry has been humbled.rnThe typical fund has fallen by almost a fifth so far this year, according to Hedge Fund Research (HFR), an analysis firm (see chart 1). "Convertible arbitrage" funds-which try to exploit price anomalies among corporate bonds-have lost a staggering 46%. By some margin 2008 has been hedge funds' worst year since hfr began compiling records in 1990.rnThe carnage is indiscriminate. In Asia as well as London and America, hedge funds are closing some or even all of their operations. Few strategies have worked well.
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机译：在伦敦最大的对冲基金之一的交易大厅里，彭博社的银幕仍然鲜活地闪烁着，但交易员们几乎保持沉默。一位高级经理说：“我们没人敢相信我们所看到的。”一年前，对冲基金是金融资本主义的全能先锋。他们在寻求回报方面毫不妥协，并且主导了大多数证券的交易活动。但根据分析公司对冲基金研究公司（Hedge Fund Research，HFR）的数据，今年到目前为止，典型的基金已下跌了近五分之一（见图1）。试图利用公司债券价格异常的“可转换套利”基金损失了惊人的46％。自从1990年hfr开始记录以来，2008年一直是对冲基金最糟糕的一年。在亚洲以及伦敦和美国，对冲基金正在关闭部分甚至全部业务。很少有策略能奏效。
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