"Your Gross Is Your Net"
It was the best of times
The first half of 2026 was close to paradise for hedge funds. Record alpha, record positioning and one of the strongest starts in over a decade. But July exposed an uncomfortable truth: when everyone owns the same momentum winners, "market neutral" can become anything but. The charts below tell the story of how hedge funds went from their best first half in years to one of the sharpest momentum reversals of the cycle.