Where Have All The Futures Traders Gone? Ask the Hedge Funds
- S&P 500 futures positions have dwindled since peaking in 2009
- Shuttering hedge funds could account for the drop: Tabb Group
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The slow death of hedge funds is taking down a once-popular derivatives contract with it.
That’s one of the theories for why aggregate positions in S&P 500 futures have fallen steadily as a percentage of the index’s market cap since the financial crisis. The decline mirrors a fall in e-mini S&P 500 contracts reported by leveraged accounts, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The category -- leveraged money -- is often used as shorthand for hedge funds and short-term traders.