Big Money in Stock Market Is In Mad Dash to Get Out of Fed’s Way
- Quant traders cut equity exposure toward lowest of decade
- Hedge funds in largest two-day selling with shorts climbing
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Despite a lot of confident predictions, nobody knows what will happen at the Federal Reserve Wednesday, never mind what the impact will be on markets. Professional investors aren’t waiting around to find out.
Particularly among managers who premise strategies on quantitative signals, exposure to stocks and other risky assets has been cut to the bone. Weeks of selling has pushed systemic positioning as measured by Deutsche Bank AG two standard deviations below average levels in data starting in 2010, among other examples.