Hedge funds entered this year coming off their ninth-straight year of trailing U.S. stocks (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) by significant margins. And for the 10-year period ending 2017, one that included the worst bear market in the post-Depression era, the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index produced a negative return (-0.4%), underperforming every single major equity and bond asset class. The market is starting to take notice as well. At the end of the second quarter, there were 8,413 hedge funds, down slightly from a peak of 8,474 in 2015.