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CAixin News, April 2 (Editor Liu Rui) On Wednesday in U.S. Eastern Time, Goldman Sachs said in a report to clients that global hedge funds suffered the worst monthly loss since January 2022 last month.

Evidently, this market volatility was triggered by the Iran war—this conflict has impacted global equities and has had a negative effect on the performance of many large asset management institutions worldwide.

Global hedge funds suffer steep drawdowns

In 2025, hedge funds delivered stellar performance, but this year’s first quarter saw a “fall from grace.” In the first quarter, the S&P 500 Index fell by 4.63%, the Nasdaq 100 Index fell by 4.87%, and among them, March saw the sharpest decline.

Goldman’s report says that in March, global hedge funds saw the largest monthly drawdown since January 2022—four years ago, investors’ main concerns were the Federal Reserve becoming increasingly hawkish and heightened geopolitical tensions, while in March this year, it was concerns sparked by the Iran fighting that ignited investors’ worries.

According to Goldman’s prime brokerage report, in March, stocks across all regional markets’ long/short funds all posted negative returns; among them, funds focused on the Asian market saw the largest decline, down 7.3%. European funds fell by 6.3%; and U.S. funds averaged a decline of 4.3% in March.

As of March 31, returns for this year among long/short fund managers in Asia, Europe, and the United States were positive 6.5%, negative 1.8%, and negative 2.4%, respectively.

By sector, technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) were among the industries hit hardest. Long/short funds drew back 7.8% in March and the whole quarter fell by 11.8%. Funds focused on healthcare retreated by about 0.9% in March.

Hedge funds rush to sell stocks

Goldman’s report also noted that March was the fourth consecutive month in which hedge funds sold global stocks, and the selling pace reached the fastest in the past 13 years.

In addition, in March, the equal-weighted average return and the median long/short investment return fell by 3.96% and 4.77%, respectively, indicating that larger managed funds had poor performance that month.

“March 2026 was the most severe month in recent years for the hedge fund industry’s performance,” Bruno Schneller, managing partner at wealth management firm Erlen Capital Management, said,

“The high volatility in hedge fund performance is caused by a range of factors, including geopolitical tensions—especially the escalation of Middle East developments involving Iran—and rapid changes in interest rates, currencies, commodity and stock factor rotations.”