Bears’ bears

April was the cruellest month, at least for short selling hedge funds. Dedicated short-bias funds performed worse than any other strategy in the Credit Suisse/Tremont data set. They’re still in positive territory for the year, but the reversal bodes ill for a strategy that had spun gold out of the credit crunch’s dross. Skilled short-sellers will come up with ideas, even in bull markets. But more broadly, the short strategy is running into headwinds. First, there are fewer easy targets. The stu...