Yet even in this most humbling of years, some of these same hedge funds are soliciting investors for more money and marketing new funds that promise bigger and better opportunities. To go to battered investors with a new moneymaking spiel takes a certain self-confidence that seems second nature to billionaires. Some might even call it chutzpah. Mr. Robbins appeared to acknowledge as much in his letter to investors. “Unfortunately, opportunity often feels like a punch in the face,” he wrote. And that has been the case even as some prominent funds shut down and talk grows about the diminishing luster...