In both those months, AQR’s hedge fund beta strategies actually made money, while the index of aggregate manager performance was down more than 6 per cent both months – with negative traditional beta driving the returns.

Just as K-Mart recently revealed the comeback in 2008 of lay-by – that almost-forgotten concept where a consumer doesn’t actually receive their goods if it turns out they can’t afford them – hedge funds will benefit by being forced back to basics this year.

And for the truly skilful ones, an extension of the financials shorting ban shouldn’t make any difference.