Despite being in a bear market, hedge funds struggle to do well A YEAR ago hedge-fund managers were hailed as the new masters of the universe. One even made a cameo appearance in “Sex and the City”, a New York television series, as an over-confident suitor. (He got the girl, of course.) Hedge-fund managers once talked about a “special skill-set” that distinguished them from mere fund managers. They promised “absolute returns irrespective of market directions”. They put big chunks of their own money into their funds and, as well as annual management fees, took a reward of some 20%—and sometimes...